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IvIBRARY 


University  of  California. 

GIFT  OF 

GEORGE  MOREY  RICHARDSON. 


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THE    PRINTED     B(^OK, 

M%   Distonr,   Jllustration,   anb   ^Iboriimciit, 

FROM    THE    DAYS    OF    GUTENBERG    TO     THE 
PRESENT   TIME. 


HENRI     BOUCHOT, 

OF  THE   NATIONAL    LIBRARY,    PARIS. 


T}-anslaicd  and  Enlarged  by 

EDWARD     C.     BIGMORE. 


WITH  OXE  HUNDRED    AND    EIGHTEEN    ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  FACSIMILES 

OF     EARLY    TYPOGRAPHY,     PRINTERS'     MARKS,    COPIES     OF     BOOK 

ILLUSTRATIONS.  AND  SPECIMENS  OF  BINDINGS  OF  ALL  AGES. 


NEW  YORK : 

SCRIBNER     AND    WELFORD, 

743  AND  745,  BROADWAY. 
1^87. 


/30/J 


PREFACE. 


ONSIDERING  that  this  short  study 
can  claim  to  be  nothing  more  than  a 
rapid  and  somewhat  summary  sur- 
vey of  the  history  of  The  Book,  it 
eschews  all  controversial -matter,  nor 
does  it  pretend  to  convey  much  fresh 
information  to  those  already  possessing  a  special  know- 
ledge of  the  subject.  It  is  rather  a  condensed,  but  at 
the  same  time,  it  may  be  hoped,  a  useful,  compendium 
of  the  thousand  unknown  or  now  forgotten  essays,  in- 
volving endless  contradictory  statements,  that  have  been 
issued  on  this  theme.  The  mere  enumeration  of  such 
works  would  simply  suffice  to  fill  a  volume.  We  have 
accordingly  no  intention  to  attempt  a  bibliography, 
satisfying  ourselves  with  the  modest  avowal  of  having 
found  so  many  documents  in  all  languages,  that  the 
very  abundance  has  been  at  least  as  embarrassing  to 
us  as  the  lack  of  materials  may  have  been  to  others. 

The  Book  appealing  in  its  present  form  to  a  special 
public  interested  more  in  artistic  than  in  purely  typo- 


IV  PREFACE. 

graphical  topics,  our  attention  has  been  more  particularly 
given  to  the  illustrators,  the  designers,  engravers, 
etchers,  and  so  forth.  Such  graphic  embellishment 
seemed  to  us  of  more  weight  than  the  manufacture  of 
the  paper,  the  type-casting,  the  printing  properly  so 
called.  This  technical  aspect  of  the  subject  has  been 
very  briefly  dealt  with  in  a  separate  chapter,  and  has 
also  been  enlarged  upon  in  the  early  section.  To  the 
binding  also  we  have  devoted  only  a  single  chapter, 
while  fully  conscious  that  a  whole  volume  would  not 
have  sufficed  merely  to  treat  the  subject  super- 
ficially. 

At  the  same  time,  we  would  not  have  the  reader 
conclude  from  all  this  that  our  book  abounds  in  omis- 
sions, or  has  overlooked  any  important  features.  The 
broad  lines,  we  trust,  have  been  adhered  to,  while  each 
section  has  been  so  handled  as  to  give  a  fair  idea  of 
the  epoch  it  deals  with.  This  is  the  first  attempt  to 
comprise  within  such  narrow  limits  an  art  and  an  in- 
dustry with  a  life  of  over  four  centuries,  essaying  to 
describe  its  beginnings  and  its  history  down  to  our 
days,  without  omitting  a  glance  at  the  allied  arts. 

The  engravings  selected  for  illustration  have,  as  far 
as  possible,  been  taken  from  unedited  materials,  and 
have  been  directly  reproduced  by  mechanical  processes, 
while  fifteen  new  illustrations,  having  special  relation 
to  the  history  of  the  Book  in  England,  have  been  added 
to  this  edition,  which  is  also  considerably  enlarged  in 
the  text  on  the  same  subject. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 
14      .      .    TO     1462  .......  I 

Origin  of  the  Book — Engravers  in  relief— The  St.  Chris- 
topher of  1423 — Origin  of  the  Xylographs — The  Xylographs, 
Donatiis,  and  Speculum — The  Laurent  Coster  legend— From 
block  books  to  movable  characters — ^John  Gaensefleisch,  called 
Gutenberg— The  Strasbourg  trial — Gutenberg  at  Mayence — 
Fust  and  Schoeffer — The  letters  of  indulgence — The  Bible — 
The  "  Catholicon  " — The  Mayence  Bible  —Causes  of  the  dis- 
persion of  the  first  Mayence  printers — General  considerations. 


CHAPTER  II. 

1462  TO   1500 33 

The  Book  and  the  printers  of  the  second  generation — The 
German  workmen  dispersed  through  Europe — Caxton  and  the 
introduction  of  printing  into  England — Nicholas  Jenson  and 
his  supposed  mission  to  Mayence — The  first  printing  in  Paris  ; 
William  Fichet  and  John  Heinlein — The  first  French  printers  ; 
their  installation  at  the  Sorbonne  and  their  publications — The 
movement  in  France — The  illustration  of  the  Book  commenced 
in  Italy — The  Book  in  Italy  ;  engraving  in  relief  and  metal 
plates — The  Book  in  Germany  :  Cologne,  Nuremberg,  Basle 
— The   Book   in    the    Low    Countries — French   schools   of 


VI  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

ornament  of  the  IJook  ;  Books  of  Hours  ;  booksellers  at  the 
end  of  the  fifteenth  century — Literary  taste  in  titles  in  France 
at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century — Printers  and  booksellers' 
marks — The  appearance  of  the  portrait  in  the  Book — Progress 
in  England — Caxton  and  his  followers. 

CHAPTER  III. 

1500    TO    1600       .  .  .  ...  .  .  .98 

French  epics  and  the  Renaissance — Venice  and  Aldus 
Manutius — Italian  illustrators — The  Germans  ;  Theiierdanck, 
Schiiufelein — The  Book  in  other  countries— French  books 
at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  before  the  accession  of 
Francis  I.  — Geoffroy  Tory  and  his  works — Francis  I.  and 
the  Book  — Robert  Estienne — Lyons  a  centre  of  bookselling  ; 
Holbein's  Dances  of  Death — School  of  Basle — Alciati's  em- 
blems and  the  illustrated  books  of  the  middle  of  the 
century — The  school  of  Fontainebleau  and  its  influence — 
Solomon  Bernard — Cornells  de  la  Haye  and  the  Promptii- 
aire — ^John  Cousin — Copper  plate  engraving  and  metal 
plates — Woeriot — The  portrait  in  the  Book  of  the  sixteenth 
century—  How  a  book  was  illustrated  on  wood  at  the  end  of 
the  century  -  Influence  of  Plantin  on  the  Book ;  his  school 
of  engravers —General  considerations — Progress  in  England 
— Coverdale's  Bible — English  printers  and  their  work — 
Engraved  plates  in  English  books. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

1600    TO    1700       .  .  .  .  .  .  .  •    151 

Tendencies  of  the  regency  of  Marie  de  Medicis — Thomas 
de  Leu  and  Leonard  Gaultier— J.  Picart  and  Claude  Mellan 
— Lyons  and  J.  de  Fornazeris  -The  Book  at  the  beginning  of 
the  seventeenth  century  in  Germany,  Italy,  and  Holland — 
Crispin  Pass  in  France — The  Elzevirs  and  their  work  in 
Holland — Sebastian  Cramoisy  and  the  Imprimerie  Royale 
— Illustration  with  Callot,  Delia  Bella,  and  Abraham  Bosse — 
The  publishers  and  the  Hotel  de  Rambouillet — The  reign  of 


CONTENTS. 

Louis  XIV.  ;  Antoine  Vitre  syndic  at  his  accession — His 
works  and  mortifications  ;  the  Polyglot  Bible  of  Le  Jay — Art 
and  illustrators  of  the  grand  century—  Sebastien  Leclerc, 
Lepautre,  and  Chauveau — Leclerc  preparing  the  illustration 
and  decoration  of  the  Book  for  the  eighteenth  century — The 
Book  in  England  in  the  seventeenth  century. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    BOOK    IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY    .  .  .     1 84 

The  regency — Publishers  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century — Illustrators  in  France  ;  Gillot — The  school  of 
Watteau  and  Boucher — Cars — The  younger  Cochin  ;  his 
principal  works  in  vignettes — French  art  in  England  ; 
Gravelot — Eisen — Choffard — The  Baisers  of  Dorat  ;  the 
Contes  of  La  Fontaine — The  publisher  Cazin  and  the  special 
literature  of  the  eighteenth  century — The  younger  Moreau 
and  his  illustrations — The  Revolution — The  school  of  David 
— Duplessis-Bertaux — The  Book  in  Germany  ;  Chodowiecki 
— In  England  ;  Boydell  and  French  artists — Caslon  and 
Baskerville — English  books  with  illustrations  — Wood  en- 
graving in  the  eighteenth  century  ;  the  Papillons — Printing 
offices  in  the  eighteenth  century. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    BOOK    IN   THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY    . 

The  Didots  and  their  improvements — -The  folio  Racine — 
The  school  of  Didot — Fine  publications  in  England  and 
Germany — Literature  and  art  of  the  Restoration — Romantic- 
ism— Wood  engraving — Bewick's  pupils,  Clennell,  etc. — 
The  illustrators  of  romances — The  generation  of  1840— The 
Book  in  our  days  in  Europe  and  America. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
TYPES,    IMPRESSION,    PAPER,    INK 239 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

PACE 

BOOKBINDING 253 

The  binding  of  the  first  printed  books — Ancient  German 
bindings — Binding  in  the  time  of  Louis  XII. — Italian  bindings 
— Aldus — Maioli — Grolier — Francis  I. — Henry  II.  and  Diane 
de  Poitiers — Catherine  de  Medicis — Henry  III. — The  Eves 
— The  "fanfares" — Louis  XIII. — Le  Gascon — Florimond 
Badier — Louis  XIV.  —  Morocco  leathers  —  Cramoisy  —  The 
bindings  of  the  time  of  Louis  XIV. — The  regency — Pasde- 
loup — The  Deromes — Dubuisson — Thouvenin — Lesne — The 
nineteenth  century — English  binders — Roger  Payne — Francis 
Bedford. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

LIBRARIES    .........    290 


INDEX  .........    305 


THE    PRINTED    BOOK. 


CHAPTER    I. 


H 


TO      1462. 


Origin  of  the  Book — Engravers  in  relief — The  St.  Christopher  of  1423 — 
Origin  of  the  Xylographs —The  Xylographs,  Donatus,  and  Specu- 
lum—The Laurent  Coster  legend — From  block  books  to  movable 
characters — John  Gaensefleisch,  called  Gutenberg — The  Strasbourg 
trial — Gutenberg  at  Mayence — Fust  and  Schoeffer — The  letters 
of  indulgence — The  Bible — The  Catholicon — The  Mayence  Bible — 
Causes  of  the  dispersion  of  the  first  Mayence  printers — General 
cun>iilerations. 

IKE  its  forerunner,  Painting,  the 
Book  has  ever  been  the  most  faith- 
ful reflection  of  the  times  when  it 
was  written  and  ilkistrated.  Natu- 
ral and  genuine  from  the  first,  and 
simply  embellished  with  crude  illus- 
trations, it  assumed  in  the  sixteenth  century  the  grand 
airs  of  the  Renaissance,  gay  or  serious  according  to 
circumstances,  decked  in  what  were  then  called  his- 
toires — that  is  to  say,  wonderful  engravings — and 
daintily  printed  in  Gothic,  Roman,  or  choice  Italic 
characters.  But  at  the  close  of  the  century  it  had 
already  abandoned  wood  for  line  engravings,  heighten- 


2  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

ing  its  mysticism  or  its  satire  at  the  whim  of  passing 
politics  and  religious  wranglings.  Then,  under  the 
influence  of  the  painters  and  courtiers  of  the  Grand 
Monarque,  it  becomes  completely  transformed,  donning 
the  peruke,  so  to  speak,  indulging  in  allegory  and 
conventionalities,  pompous  and  showy,  tricking  itself 
out  in  columns  and  pilasters  instead  of  the  old 
arabesques  and  scroll  work  of  the  Renaissance,  thus 
continuing  amid  the  coquetries  of  the  regency,  the 
pastorals  and  insipidities  of  the  following  reigns,  until 
at  last  it  suddenly  assumes  with  the  heroes  of  the 
Revolution  the  austere  mien  and  airs  of  classic  art. 
The  Book  has  always  been  as  closely  connected  with 
the  manners  of  our  predecessors  as  art  itself.  The 
artist  submits  more  than  he  thinks  to  the  tendency 
of  his  surroundings ;  and  if  he  at  times  makes  his 
taste  appreciated,  it  is  because  he  has  more  or  less 
received  his  first  influence  from  others. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  the  fashion  of  emblematic 
representation  placed  under  the  portrait  of  Gaston  de 
Foix  a  figure  of  a  young  plant  in  full  bloom  ;  and 
the  inscription  in  Latin  was  "  Nascendo  maturus" — 
"  Mature  at  birth."  The  Book  deserves  the  same 
device ;  from  its  first  day  up  to  now  it  is  a  marvel 
of  simplicity  and  harmony.  The  tentative  efforts 
which  preceded  the  discovery  of  printing  were  but  few; 
it  may  be  said  that  from  the  moment  that  Gutenberg 
conceived  the  idea  of  separating  the  characters,  of 
arranging  the  words  in  the  forme,  of  inking  them,  and  of 
taking  a  proof  on  paper,  the  Book  was  perfect.  At  best 
we  see  in  following  times  some  modifications  of  detail ; 
the  art  of  printing  was  mature,  mature  from  its  birth. 


THE   OLD   ENGRAVERS   IN    RELIEF.  3 

But  before  arriving  at  the  movable  type  placed  side 
by  side,  and  forming  phrases,  which  appears  to  us  to-day 
so  simple  and  so  ardinary,  many  years  passed.  It  is 
certain  that  long  before  Gutenberg  a  means  was  found 
of  cutting  wood  and  metal  in  relief  and  reproducing 
by  application  the  image  traced.  Signs-manual  and 
seals  were  a  kind  of  printing,  inasmuch  as  the  relief  of 
their  engraving  is  impressed  upon  a  sheet  by  the  hand. 
But  between  this  simple  statement  and  the  uncritical 
histories  of  certain  special  writers,  attributing  the 
invention  of  engraving  to  the  fourteenth  century,  there 
is  all  the  distance  of  legendary  history.  Remember- 
ing that  the  numerous  guilds  of  taillcurs  d'images,  or 
sculptors  in  relief,  had  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  spe- 
cialty of  carving  ivories  and  of  placing  effigies  on 
tombs,  it  can  be  admitted  without  much  difficulty,  that 
these  people  one  day  found  a  means  of  multiplying 
the  sketches  of  a  figure  often  asked  for,  by  modelling 
its  contour  in  relief  on  ivory  or  wood,  and  after- 
wards taking  a  reproduction  on  paper  or  parchment  by 
means  of  pressure.  When  and  where  was  this  dis- 
covery produced  ?  We  cannot  possibly  say ;  but  it 
is  certain  that  playing  cards  were  produced  by  this 
means,  and  that  from  the  year  1423  popular  figures 
were  cut  in  wood,  as  we  know  from  the  St.  Christopher 
of  that  date  belonging  to  Lord  Spencer. 

It  is  not  our  task  to  discuss  this  question  at  length, 

nor  to  decide  if  at  first  these  reliefs  were  obtained  on 

wood  or  metal.     It  is  a  recognised  fact  that  the  single 

-sheet  with  a  printed    figure  preceded  the  xylographic 

ibook  in  which  text  and  illustration  were  cut  in  the  same 

'block.     This  process  did  not  appear  much  before  the 


4  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

second  quarter  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  it  was  em- 
ployed principally  for  popular  works  which  were  then  the 
universal  taste.  The  engraving  also  was  nothing  more 
than  a  kind  of  imposition  palmed  oft'  as  a  manuscript ; 
the  vignettes  were  often  covered  with  brilliant  colours 
and  gold,  and  the  whole  sold    as  of  the  best  quality. 

The  first  attempts  at  these  little  figures  in  relief  dis- 
covered by  the  image-makers  and  diffused  by  the 
makers  of  playing  cards  were  but  indifferent.  The 
drawing  and  the  cutting  were  equally  unskilful,  as  may 
be  seen  in  the  facsimiles  given  by  M.  H.  Delaborde  in 
his  Histoire  de  la  Gravure.  An  attempt  had  been  made 
to  put  some  text  at  the  foot  of  the  St.  Christopher  of 
1423,  and  the  idea  of  giving  more  importance  to  the  text 
was  to  the  advantage  of  the  booksellers.  At  the  mercy 
of  the  writers  who  fleeced  them,  obliged  to  recoup 
themselves  by  the  exaggerated  prices  of  the  most  ordi- 
nary books,  the}'  hoped  to  turn  engraving  to  account 
in  order  to  obtain  on  better  terms  the  technical  work 
needed  for  their  trade.  At  the  epoch  of  the  St.  Chris- 
topher, in  1423,  several  works  were  in  vogue  in  the 
universities,  the  schools,  and  with  the  public.  Among 
the  first  of  these  was  the  Latin  Syntax  of  ^Elius 
Donatus  on  the  eight  parts  of  speech,  a  kind  of  grammar 
for  the  use  of  young  students,  as  well  as  the  famous 
Speculum,  a  collection  of  precepts  addressed  to  the 
faithful,  which  were  copied  and  recopied  without 
satisfying  the  demand. 

To  find  a  means  of  multiplying  these  treatises  at 
little  cost  was  a  fortune  to  the  inventor.  It  is  to  be 
supposed  that  many  artisans  of  the  time  attempted  it ; 
and  without  doubt  it  was  the  booksellers  themselves, 


THE    "  UONATUS/ 


tionia  (luf  ppofim  aitjs  |)a^ 
ribiia  owtoie  luinifiranmt 
Jm^aurfomjlff.  autiiiufar 
autin{iiutt.0i>jg)ofmoiiituJtacnDfir' 
'Slmi|.0ui3fCa0i6  nTt.©iiof  cafiw 

(ii{onfdattlrafit0:Qf  ao.  apuo.  aiitr 
anufrfurH.fjo.nira.rirrii.rirca.  rotrft. 
rrp.frfraJuro'antraMra.uttt'ao'i 
|)cnf.p(t.jpfjpffi;.fi^ni.iJO^.traHS 
«lfra,<)2rfrr.(iipja.arnffr.ofip.fi'njo 
|)ntr9.€iuo  oinimm  mt-'  ^n  parrnn 
aput  unAla.  anrr  rord  .anurrrmn  intmi 
fO6.n0  rfnii.ntrafom.  nrmuinno" 
i^ra  trmpEf anrra  I|onr6.n-gaj4)u»> 
iliiod.rjriTamiiflno&itirn'naurd.in' 
tra  m(nta.m&a  trcru  jufra  tnacribnr 
oiiauguml4)on(  mbunai^  panrmti 
^fffmara.j9JffriJi(injjMa  frtjmfii 

Fig.  I. — Part  of  a  Dona/us  taken  from  a  xylograph,  the  original  of 
which  is  preserved  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale. 

mostly  mere  dealers,  who  were  tempted  to  the  adven- 
ture   by  the    sculptors    and  wood-cutters.      But    none 


6  THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 

had  yet  been  so  bold  as  to  cut  in  relief  a  series  of  blocks 
with  engravings  and  text  to  compose  a  complete  work. 
That  point  was  reached  very  quickly  when  some  legend 
was  engraved  at  the  foot  of  a  vignette,  and  it  may  be 
thought  that  the  Donatus  was  the  most  ancient  of  books 
so  obtained  among  the  "  Incunabuli,"  as  we  now  call 
them,  a  word  that  signifies  origin  or  cradle. 
^  The  first  books  then  were  formed  of  sheets  of  paper 
[or  parchment,  laboriously  printed  from  xylographic 
blocks,  that  is  to  say  wooden  blocks  on  which  a 
tailleur  d' images  had  left  in  relief  the  designs  and 
the  letters  of  the  text.  He  had  thus  to  trace  his  cha- 
racters in  reverse,  so  that  they  could  be  reproduced 
as  written  ;  he  had  to  avoid  faults,  because  a  phrase 
once  done,  well  or  ill,  lasted.  It  was  doubtless  this 
difficulty  of  correction  that  gave  the  idea  of  movable 
types.  If  the  cutter  seriously  erred,  it  was -necessary 
to  cancel  altogether  the  faulty  block.  This  at  least 
explains  the  legend  of  Laurent  Coster,  of  Haarlem,  who, 
according  to  Hadrian  Junius,  his  compatriot,  discovered 
by  accident  the  secret  of  separate  types  while  playing 
with  his  children.  And  if  the  legend  of  which  we 
speak  contains  the  least  truth,  it  must  be  found  in  the 
sense  above  indicated,  that  is  in  the  correction  of 
faults,  rather  than  in  the  innocent  game  of  a  merchant 
of  Haarlem.  However,  we  shall  have  occasion  to 
return  to  the  subject  of  these  remarks.  It  should  be 
well  established  that  engraving  in  relief  on  wood  alone 
gave  the  idea  of  making  xylographic  blocks  and  of 
composing  books.  Movable  type,  the  capital  point  of 
printing,  the  pivot  of  the  art  of  the  Book,  developed 
itself  little  by  little,  according  to  needs,  when  there  was 


COSTER   AND   MOVABLE   TYPES.  7 

occasion  to  correct  an  erroneous  inscription  ;  but,  in 
any  case,  its  origin  is  unknown.  Doubtless  to  vary 
the  text,  means  were  found  to  replace  entire  phrases 
by  other  phrases,  preserving  the  original  figures  ;  and 
thus  the  light  dawned  upon  these  craftsmen,  occupied 
in  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  their  books. 

According  to  Hadrian  Junius,  Laurent  Janszoon 
Coster  (the  latter  name  signifying  "the  discoverer") 
published  one  of  the  celebrated  series  of  works 
under  the  general  title  of  Speculum  which  was  then 
so  popular  (the  mystic  style  exercising  so  great  an 
attraction  on  the  people  of  the  fifteenth  century),  the 
Speculum  Humance  Salvationis.  Written  before  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  made  popular  by  manu- 
scripts, in  spite  of  its  fantastic  Latinity  and  of  its 
false  quantities,  this  ascetic  and  crude  poem  was  easy 
of  access  to  the  xylographists.  Junius,  as  we  see, 
attributes  to  Laurent  Coster  the  first  impression  of  the 
Speculum,  no  longer  the  purely  xylographic  impres- 
sion of  the  Donatus  from  an  engraved  block,  but  that 
of  the  more  advanced  manner  in  movable  types.  In 
point  of  fact,  this'  book  had  at  least  four  editions, 
similar  in  engravings  and  body  of  letters,  but  of  dif- 
ferent text.  It  must  then  be  admitted  that  the  fount 
was  dispersed,  and  typography  discovered,  because  the 
same  cast  of  letters  could  not  be  adapted  to  different 
languages.  On  the  other  hand,  the  vignettes  do  not 
change,  indicating  sufficiently  the  mobility  of  the  types. 
In  comparison  to  what  may  be  seen  in  later  works,  the 
illustrations  of  the  Speculum  are  by  no  means  bad;  they 
have  the  appearance,  at  once  naive  and  picturesque,  of 
the  works  of  Van    Eyck,  and  not  at  all  of  the  style  of 


8  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

the  German  miniaturists ;  properly  illuminated  and 
gilded,  they  lent  themselves  to  the  illusion  of  being 
confounded  with  the  hisioyres,  drawn  by  the  hand, 
and  this  is  what  the  publisher  probably  sought. 

All  the  xylographic  works  of  the  fii'teenth  century 
may  be  classed  in  two  categories  :  the  xylographs, 
rightly  so  called,  or  the  block  books,  such  as  the 
Donatus,  and  the  books  with  movable  types,  like  the 
Speculum,  of  which  we  speak.  This  mystic  and 
simple  literature  of  pious  works  for  the  use  of  people 
of  modest  resources  found  in  printing  the  means  of 
more  rapid  reproduction.  Then  appeared  the  Biblia 
Pauperum,  one  of  the  most  celebrated  and  the  most 
often  reproduced,  and  the  Ars  Moriendi,  a  kind  of 
dialogue  between  an  angel  and  a  devil  at  the  bedside 
of  a  dying  person,  which,  inspired  no  doubt  by  older 
manuscripts,  retained  for  a  long  time  in  successive 
editions  the -first  tradition  of  its  designs.  On  labels 
displayed  among  the  figures  are  found  inscribed  the 
dialogue  of  the  demons  and  angels  seeking  to  attach  to 
themselves  the  departing  soul,  the  temptations  of  Satan 
on  the  subject  of  faith,  and  the  responses  of  the  angel 
on  the  same  subject. 

We  can  see  what  developments  this  theme  could  lend 
to  the  mysticism  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Composed 
in  eleven  designs,  the  Ars  Moriendi  ran  up  to  eight 
different  editions.  From  the  middle  to  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  the  text  was  in  Latin,  then  in  French, 
under  the  title  LArt  an  Morier.  In  the  French 
edition  will  be  found  the  blocks  that  served  for  the 
second  impression  of  the  work.  About  1480,  more 
than     fifty    years    after    the     first    essays,     the    Ars 


THE   BLOCK   BOOKS. 


Moricndi  enjoyed  so  much  vogue  that  it  employed  all 
the  resources  of  typography  as  much  as  in  its  earliest 
days.     The  original  subjects,  copied  in  a  very  mediocre 


Fig.  2. — Xylographic    figure    from    the  Ars    Morieiidi,    copied    in 
reverse  in  the  Art  an  Moricr. 


manner,  adorned  the  text,  which  was  composed  in 
Gothic  letters,  with  a  new  and  more  explicit  title : 
Tractatiis  brcvis  ac  valde  iitilis  de  Arte  cl  Scientta  bene 


lO  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

moricndi  (4to,  s.l.n.d.),  but  the  order  is  inverted,  figure  5 
of  the  xylograph  becoming  No.  3  of  the  edition  of  1480. 
I  The  Ars  Meiuorandi,  another  xylographic  work,  of 
which  the  subject,  taken  from  the  New  Testament,  was 
equally  well  adapted  to  the  imagination  of  the  artists, 
had  also  a  glorious  destiny.  The  work  originally  com- 
prised thirty  blocks,  the  fifteen  blocks  of  text  facing  the 
fifteen  engravings.  The  .designs  represented  the  attri- 
butes of  each  of  the  Evangelists,  with  allegories  and 
explanatory  legends.  Thus,  in  that  which  relates  to 
the  Apostle  Matthew, 

No.  I  represents  the  birth  and  genealogy  of  Jesus 
Christ, 

No.  2  the  offerings  of  the  Magi, 

No.  3  the  baptism  of  St.  John, 

No.  4  the  Temptation  of  Christ, 

No.  5  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 

No,  6  the  parable  of  the  birds. 

The  angel  that  supports  the  whole  is  the  emblem  of 
St.  Matthew  the  Evangelist. 

This  mnemonic  treatment  of  the  Gospels  began  with 
symbols  of  which  we  have  no  means  of  finding  the 
origin,  but  which  without  doubt  were  employed  many 
centuries  earlier.  However  that  may  be,  their  success 
was  as  great  as  that  of  the  already-quoted  works.  In 
1505  a  German  publisher  put  forth  an  imitation,  under 
the  title  of  Rationarium  Evangclistariim ;  and  this 
time  the  copier  of  the  illustrations,  retaining  the  tradi- 
tion of  the  first  xylographers,  no  less  reveals  an  artist 
of  the  first  order,  at  least  a  pupil  of  Martin  Schongauer. 
Some  of  the  conceptions  of  the  Rationarium  recall 
exactly   the  engravings   of  the  great   German   master, 


THE  BLOCK   BOOKS. 


II 


Fig.  3. — Figure  of  the  school  of  Martin  Schongauer,  taken  from 
the  Rationarium  Evangelistarum  of  1505,  and  copied  from  the  corre- 
sponding plate  of  the  Ars  Mcnioraitdi. 

among  others  that  of  the  Infant  Jesus  (plate  12),  which 


12  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

nearly  approaches  the  style  of  the  Infant  Jesus  of 
Schongauer ;  besides,  the  principal  figures  leave  but 
little  doubt  on  the  subject.  The  same  wings  are  on  the 
angels  and  on  the  eagles,  the  same  coiffures  on  the 
Jiuman  characters,  often  the  same  attitudes. 

From  the  preceding  can  be  judged  the  extraordinary 
.favour  these  productions  enjoyed.  From  their  origin 
they  were  diffused  through  the  whole  of  Europe,  and 
attracted  the  attention  of  excellent  artists.  Neverthe- 
less their  beginnings  were  difficult.  The  movable  types 
used,  cut  separately  in  wood,  were  not  constituted  to  give 
an  ideal  impression.  We  can  understand  the  cost  that 
the  execution  of  these  characters  must  have  occasioned, 
made  as  they  were  one  by  one  without  the  possibility 
of  ever  making  them  perfectly  uniform.  Progress 
was  to  substitute  for  this  irregular  process^  types  that 
were  similar,  identical,  easily  produced,  and  used  for 
a  long  time  without  breaking.  Following  on  the  essays 
of  Laurent  Coster,  continuous  researches  bore  on  this 
point ;  but  as  the  invention  was  said  to  be  his,  and  it 
being  of  importance  to  him  not  to  divulge  it,  so  that  he 
should  not  lose  his  profit,  much  time  was  lost  over  it 
in  his  workshop  without  much  success.  Here  history  is 
somewhat  confused.  Hadrian  Junius  positively  ac- 
cuses one  of  Laurent  Coster's  workmen  of  having  stolen 
the  secrets  of  his  master  and  taken  flight  to  Mayence, 
where  he  afterwards  founded  a  printing  office.  Accord- 
ing to  Junius,  the  metal  type  was  the  discovery  of 
the  Dutchman,  and  the  name  of  the  thief  was  John. 
Who  was  this  John  ?  Was  it  John  Gaensefleisch,  called 
Gutenberg,  or  possibly  John  Fust  ?  But  it  is  not  at 
all  apparent  that  Gutenberg,  a  gentleman  of  Mayence, 


GUTENBERG   AT   STRASBOURG.  I  3 

exiled  from  his  country,  was  ever  in  the  service  of  the 
Dutch  inventor.  As  to  Fust,  we  beUeve  his  only  in- 
tervention in  the  association  of  printers  of  Mayence 
was  as  a  money-lender,  from  which  may  be  compre- 
hended the  unlikelihood  of  his  having  been  with  Coster, 
the  more  so  as  we  find  Gutenberg  retired  to  Strasbourg, 
where  he  pursued  his  researches.  There  he  was,  as 
it  were,  out  of  his  sphere,  a  ruined  noble  whose  great 
knowledge  was  bent  entirely  on  invention.  Doubtless, 
like  many  others,  he  may  have  had  in  his  hands  one  of 
the  printed  works  of  Laurent  Coster,  and  conceived 
the  idea  of  appropriating  the  infant  process.  In  1439- 
he  was  associated  with  two  artisans  of  the  city  of  Stras- 
bourg, ostensibly  in  the  fabrication  of  mirrors,  which 
may  be  otherwise  understood  as  printing  of  Speciihims,. 
the  Latin  word  signifying  the  same  thing.  These  men 
needed  to  surround  themselves  with  precautions  ; 
printing  was  as  yet  only  a  practical  means  of  multiply- 
ing manuscripts,  to  impose  a  little  on  the  innocent, 
and  fortune  awaited  him  who,  without  saying  anything, 
made  this  invention  serve  him.  The  following  will 
prove  this,  as  well  as  its  tendency. 

A  legal  document  discovered  in  1760  by  Wencker 
and  Schoepflin  in  the  Pfennigthurm  of  Strasbourg,, 
and  afterwards  translated  into  French  by  M.  Leon  de 
Laborde,  makes  us  at  length  acquainted  with  the  work 
of  Gutenberg  and  of  his  associates  Andrew  Dritzehen 
and  Andrew  Heilmann.  Apparently  these  three  men 
were,  as  we  have  said,  Spiegclinacher,  that  is  makers 
of  mirrors.  They  had  jointly  entered  into  a  deed  by 
the  terms  of  which,  if  one  of  the  partners  died  in  the 
course  of  their  researches,    his   heirs   would   have  no 


14  THE   PRINTED    BOOK. 

rights  beyond  an  indemnity  corresponding  to  the  amount 
invested  by  him.  It  happened  that  Andrew  Dritzehen 
did  die,  and  that  one  of  his  brothers  aspired  to  occupy 
his  place  in  the  partnership.  The  dead  man  left  debts 
behind  him ;  he  had  squandered  his  florins  by  hundreds 
in  his  experiments.  Gutenberg  having  offered  to  pay 
the  amounts  expended,  the  heirs  of  Dritzehen,  who 
wanted  more,  summoned  him  before  the  courts  to  show 
why  he  should  not  make  place  for  them  in  the  work  of 
experiments  and  making  of  mirrors.  The  witnesses  in 
their  testimony  before  the  court  told  what  they  knew 
of  the  inventions  of  the  partnership.  One  among  them 
deposed  that  after  the  death  of  Dritzehen,  Gutenberg's 
servant  went  to  the  workshop  and  begged  Nicholas 
Dritzehen,  brother  of  the  deceased,  to  displace  and 
break  up  four  formes  placed  in  a  press.  A  second  testi- 
fied that  the  works  of  Andrew  had  cost  him  at  the  least 
three  hundred  florins,  an  enormous  sum  for  those  days. 
Other  witnesses  painted  Gutenberg  in  a  curious  light : 
they  made  him  out  to  be  a  savage,  a  hermit,  who  con- 
cealed from  his  associates  certain  arts  of  which  the  deed 
stipulated  nothing.  One  fact  proved  that  the  experi- 
ments referred  to  the  manufacture  of  metallic  charac- 
ters. A  goldsmith,  named  Dunne,  maintained  that  he 
had  received  more  than  a  hundred  florins  for  printing 
material  "  das  zu  dem  trucken  gehoret."  "  Trucken !" — 
"  Typography  !  "  The  word  was  found,  and  from  that 
day  usage  has  consecrated  it. 

Before  1439,  then,  John  Gaensefleisch,  or  Gutenberg, 
was  devoted  to  the  art  of  reproduction  of  texts,  and 
had  consecrated  his  life  and  feeble  resources  to  it. 
Three    problems    presented    themselves    to   him.      He 


GUTENBERG   AT   MAYENCE  ;    FUST.  I  5 

wanted  types  less  fragile  than  wooden  types  and  less 
costly  than  engraving.  He  wanted  a  press  by  the  aid  of 
which  he  could  obtain  a  clear  impression  on  parchment 
or  paper.  He  desired  also  that  the  leaves  of  his  books 
should  not  be  anopistograph,  or  printed  only  on  one 
side.  There  were  many  unknown  things  to  vex  his  soul, 
of  which  he  himself  alone  could  have  a  presentiment. 
Until  then,  and  even  long  after,  the  xylographs  were 
printed  an  frotton  or  with  a  brush,  rubbing  the  paper 
upon  the  forme  coated  with  ink,  thicker  than  ordinary 
ink.     He  dreamed  of  something  better. 

In  the  course  of  his  work  John  Gutenberg  returned 
to  Mayence.  The  idea  of  publishing  a  Bible,  the  Book 
of  books,  had  taken  possession  of  his  heart.  The 
Spiegclmaclicr  of  Strasbourg  was  on  the  road  to  loss. 
The  cutting  of  his  types  had  ruined  him,  and  on  his 
arrival  in  his  native  town,  his  stock  in  trade,  transported 
by  him,  was  of  no  great  weight :  some  boxes  of  type, 
an  inconvenient  forme,  and  perhaps  an  ordinary  p^ess, 
a  wine-maker's  press,  with  a  wooden  screw.  The  idea 
of  using  this  unwieldy  instrument  for  the  impression  of 
his  formes  had  already  occurred  to  him  ;  but  would  not 
the  frotton  serve  still  better  ?  The  force  of  the  blow 
from  the  bar  would  break  the  miserable  type,  the  raised 
parts  of  which  could  not  resist  the  repeated  strokes. 
In  this  unhappy  situation,  Gutenberg  made  the  acquaint-  y 
ance  of  a  financier  of  Mayence,  named  Fust,  who  was 
in  search  of  a  business,  and  who  put  a  sum  of  eleven 
hundred'  florins  at  his  disposal  to  continue  his  ex- 
periments. Unfortunately  this  money  disappeared,  it 
melted  away,  and  the  results  obtained  were  absolutely 
ludicrous. 


l6  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

It  is  certain  that  John  Fust  did  not  enter  on  the  en- 
gagement without  protecting  himself.  From  the  first  he 
bound  his  debtor  in  a  contract  for  six  per  cent,  interest, 
besides  a  share  in  the  profits.  In  addition  he  stipulated 
repayment  in  case  of  failure.  Gutenberg,  improvident, 
as  is  the  way  of  inventors,  had  signed  away  all  that 
he  possessed  to  procure  funds.  It  is  presumed,  besides, 
that  during  the  continuance  of  his  investigations,  he 
composed  some  current  books  with  the  resources  at 
his  disposal,  that-  served  a  little  to  lighten  his  debts. 
But  the  printing  house  of  the  Zum  Jungen  at  Mayence 
was  far  from  shining  in  the  world,  because  the  asso- 
ciation of  Fust  concerned  itself  only  with  the  pub- 
lication of  a  Bible,  and  not  at  all  with  the  Spccnlitnis 
and  Donatuses,  that  were  so  much  in  vogue  at  this 
time.  Besides,  the  money-lender  made  a  point  of 
pressing  his  debtor,  and  did  not  allow  him  any  leisure 
to  labour  outside  the  projected  work.  About  this  time 
a  third  actor  enters  on  the  scene.  Peter  Schoeffer,  of 
Gernsheim,  a  writer,  introduced  into  the  workshop  of 
Gutenberg  to  design  letters,  benefited  by  the  abortive 
experiments,  and  taking  up  the  invention  at  its  dead- 
lock, conducted  it  to  success.  John  of  Tritenheim, 
called  Trithemius,  the  learned  abbot  of  Spanheim,  is 
the  person  who  relates  these  facts  ;  but  as  he  got  his 
information  from  Schoeffer  himself,  too  much  credence 
must  not  be  given  to  his  statements.  Besides,  Schoeffer 
was  not  at  all  an  ordinary  artisan.  If  we  credit  a 
Strasbourg  manuscript  written  by  his  hand  in  1449,  he 
was  a  student  of  the  "  most  glorious  university  of 
Paris."  In  the  workshop  of  Gutenberg,  his  industrious 
and  inventive  intellect  found  a  fecund  mine,   and  this 


THE    LETTERS   OF   INDULGENCE.  IJ 

caligraphist  dreamt  of  other  things  than  shaping  letters 
for  the  use  of  wood  engravers.  Gutenberg,  arrested 
in  his  career  by  the  wants  of  life,  the  worries  of  busi- 
ness, and  perhaps  also  the  fatigues  of  his  labours, 
may  have  let  the  new-comer  know  something  of  his 
experiences.  One  cannot  know,  but  it  is  certain  that, 
shortly  after,  John  Fust  was  so  fascinated  by  Schoeffer, 
so  attracted  by  his  youth  arid  his  application,  that  he  \ 
resolved  to  put  new  capital  into  the  business.  He  \ 
did  more  :  to  permanently  attach  him,  he  gave  him 
his  grand-daughter  in  marriage,  not  his  daughter,  as 
was  thought  until  M.  Auguste  Bernard  rectified  this 
mistake. 

We  have  now  come  to  1453,  the  year  preceding  the 
first  dated  monument  of  printing  in  movable  types  :  the 
letters  of  indulgence.  It  may  be  acknowledged  that 
the  sudden  affection  of  Fust  for  his  workman  depended 
on  some  interested  motive,  and  not  at  all  on  attraction 
of  the  heart.  Had  this  former  student  of  the  univer- 
sity of  Paris  found  the  means  of  rapidly  founding 
metallic  types,  the  search  for  which  had  cost  Gutenberg 
many  sleepless  nights  ?  Had  he  completed  it  by  apply- 
ing to  it  the  matrix  and  punch  which  had  then  and 
for  centuries  served  the  makers  of  seals  and  the  money- 
coiners  ?  Perhaps,  as  was  most  probable,  the  two  asso- 
ciates had  agreed,  and  putting  their  experiences  together, 
had  conquered  hitherto  insurmountable  difficulties. 

The  year   1454  witnessed  the   diffusion  throughout 
Christendom  of  letters  of  indulgence,  accorded  by  Pope  -^ 
Nicholas   V.,  who   wished   to  aid  in    funds  the    King 
of  Cyprus  against  the  Turks.     These  circular  letters, 
scattered  by  thousands  to  every   corner  of  the  world, 

2 


1 8  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

employed  numerous  copyists.  Arrived  at  Mayence, 
the  distributers  found  a  workshop  ready  prepared  to 
furnish  copies  in  the  shortest  possible  time.  They 
set  to  work  and  brought  together  all  the  type  they 
possessed,  cast  or  engraved,  to  set  up  these  famous 
letters.  Among  the  impressions  was  that  of  which  we 
give  a  reproduction,  which  belongs  to  the  edition  called 
that  of  thirty-one  lines.  The  original  was  delivered 
for  a  consideration  to  Josse  Ott  von  Mospach  on  the 
31st  of  December,  1454. 

It  is  not  without  interest,  for  the  history  of  the  Book 
and  of  printing,  to  note  here  that  these  letters  of 
indulgence,  the  clandestine  traffic  in  which  was  largely 
accelerated  by  rapidity  of  production  and  the  small 
cost  of  each  copy,  formed  one  of  the  causes  of  the 
religious  reform  of  Martin  Luther.  They  afforded  a 
means  of  raising  money,  and  were  so  generally  resorted 
to  that  in  the  register  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville  of  Paris 
preserved  in  the  Archives  Nationales  (H  1778)  it  may 
be  seen  that  the  sheriffs  requested  the  Pope  to  allow 
them  to  employ  them  in  the  reconstruction  of  the 
bridge  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville. 

The  ice  once  broken,  Fust  and  Schoeffer  found  it 
hard  to  nourish  a  useless  mouth.  For  them  Guten- 
berg was  more  of  a  hindrance  than  a  profit,  and  they 
sought  brutally  to  rid  themselves  of  him.  Fust  had 
a  most  easy  pretext,  which  was  to  demand  purely 
and  simply  from  his  associate  the  sums  advanced  by 
him,  and  which  had  produced  so  little.  Gutenberg 
had  probably  commenced  his  Bible,  but,  in  face  of  the 
claims  of  Fust,  he  had  to  abandon  it  altogether,  types, 
formes,  and  press. 


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20  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

In  November,  1455,  he  had  retired  to  a  httle  house 
outside  the  city,  where  he  tried  his  best,  by  the  aid  of 
foreign  help,  to  establish  a  workshop,  and  to  preserve  the 
most  perfect  secrecy.  Relieved  of  his  company,  Fust 
and  Schoeffer  were  able  to  take  up  the  impression  of 
the  Bible  and  to  complete  it  without  him.  If  matters 
did  so  happen,  and  Schoeffer  had  not  the  excuse  that 
he  had  previously  discovered  the  casting  of  type,  there 
is  but  one  word  to  designate  his  conduct :  robber}^  and 
moral  robbery,  the  worst  of  all.  But  what  can  be  said 
to-day  of  these  people  ? 

One  thing  is  certain  :  that  the  Bible  of  Schoeffer,  com- 
,  menced  by  Gutenberg  or  not,  put  on  sale  by  Fust  and 
W  Schoeffer  alone  about  the  end  of  1455  or  beginning  of 
1456,  proves  to  be  the  first  completed  book.  Retired 
to  his  new  quarters,  Gutenberg  was  taking  courage,  so 
as  not  to  appear  too  much  behindhand,  but  the  recon- 
stitution  of  his  workshop  cost  him  enormous  time. 
And,  besides,  he  missed  the  letter-maker  Schoeffer,  his 
own  Gothic  letters,  engraved  on  steel  with  a  punch, 
not  having  the  same  elegance.  When  his  work 
appeared,  it  could  not  sustain  comparison.  The  Bible  of 
Schoeffer  was  more  compact,  the  impression  was  more 
perfect,  the  ink  better,  the  type  less  irregular.  The 
original  inventor,  in  his  business  with  Fust,  made  an 
unhappy  competition  for  himself.  We  give  here  a 
fragment  of  this  celebrated  book,  a  kind  of  mute  witness 
of  the  science  and  mortifications  of  the  first  printer.  It 
is  now  called  the  Mazarine  Bible,  from  the  fact  that 
the  copy  in  the  Mazarin  Library  was  the  first  to  give 
evidence  concerning  it.  The  book  was  put  on  sale  at 
the  end  of  1455  or  beginning  of  1456,  for  a  manuscript 


THE   MAZARINE   BIBLE.  21 


iuQima}ttnfaiui.f^tim^  opulima 
tiim-uoiat  Indittitiiuf  nos  ^mStm 
tmvx^,  l^ttie  tUiTniottirqm  tj^hm 
siHfitMJmm  uageaaiiH  t  Immt^ 
timxt^  uagctiakiqut  numo^  uora^ 
nrna^Cimc^  dlcaiitBlmmrqteutoito^ 
nmi  pnotat.l]iii(t  quSi^litiri  mo)^: 
i|tuie,){tm  tt|omtt||^.et#a))sliat. 
^idtn^aii  mDtmlaiiuntt  miitK« 
unt  a  t^u  km  nam:qm  apim  iUoq 
iormiminunimtit.2SflnU£rutitt|ut 
liDpdtrnniDcEtiuDtiulibiiictmaiictti 
iotnn0ut  nut^^quta  m  lucte  w3nm : 
fm  ti^  narmt  t^iSoria.  f eixiue  ffqui^ 
tut  famiutquon  UO0  rcgnoi^  pmu  ? 
&dm  Dtdm?.  Ciuart?  nrnlad^im  in  f 

Fig,  5.— Fragment  of  the  Mazarine  Bible,  printed  in  two  columns. 
Beginning  of  the  text  in  the  second  column  ;  original  size. 

note  of  a  vicar  of  St.  Stephen  at  Mayence  records  that 
he  finished  the   binding  and    illuminating  of   the  first 


22  THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 

volume  on  St.  Bartholomew's  Day,  1456,  and  the  second 
on  the  15  th  of  August.  St.  Bartholomew's  Day  is  the 
13th  of  June,  and  not  the  24th  of  August,  as  the 
catalogue  of  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale  has  it. 

All  these  remarks  show  that  the  printers  did  not  pro- 
claim themselves,  and  were  making  pseudo-manuscripts. 
They  did  not  make  known  their  names  or  address. 
The  rubricators  sided  with  them,  for  many  of  the  copies 
are  illuminated  with  as  much  care  and  beauty  as  if  they 
were  the  finest  manuscripts. 

There  is  no  record  extant  of  the  number  of  copies 
printed,  but  it  was  done  on  both  vellum  and  paper. 
Copies  are  by  no  means  uncommon,  most  of  the  great 
libraries  having  one,  and  many  are  in  private  collections. 
One  is  shown  among  the  typographical  monuments  in 
the  King's  Library  of  the  British  Museum,  and  there  is 
a  finely  illuminated  copy  in  the  show-room  of  the  Biblio- 
theque Nationale.  From  its  very  great  importance  as 
the  first  book  that  is  known  to  have  been  printed,  its 
value  has  a  constant  increase.  Of  the  copies  recently 
sold,  one  at  the  Perkins  sale  in  1873  on  vellum  sold 
for  ;^3,400,  another  on  paper  at  the  same  sale  fetched 
^2,900,  while  one  on  paper  in  the  Syston  Park  Library 
sold  in  December,  1884,  for  ^3,900.  It  has  been  asserted 
that  the  copies  on  paper  were  the  first  issued  by  Guten- 
berg and  his  partners,  and  those  on  vellum  subsequently 
printed  by  Fust  and  Schoeffer,  after  they  had  obtained 
possession  of  the  inventor's  stock. 

But  so  many  copies  absolutely  similar  in  aspect,  and 
of  so  regular  a  style,  put  in  the  market  from  day  to 
day  by  Fust  and  Schoeffer,  gave  rise  to  protests  from 
the  caligraphists.     Criticism  always  attends  upon  sue- 


THE   "  CATHOLICON."  23 

cess,  but  having  obtained  the  result,  the  two  associates 
did  not  hesitate  to  proclaim  themselves  the  printers  of 
the  Bible.  On  the  publication  of  the  Psalter,  which  7 
followed  the  Bible  at  a  year's  interval,  they  gave  theirl 
names  and  added  a  date,  1457,  the  first  instance  of  a' 
date  being  recorded  in  a  book.  This  second  work  was 
of  so  skilful  a  typography,  that  it  might  have  been 
shown  as  the  work  of  an  expert  penman  ;  the  faults 
remarked  in  the  letters  of  indulgence  are  no  longer 
seen ;  type  had  attained  perfection  ;  in  two  years 
printing  had  reached  its  culminating  point. 

In  spite  of  his  disappointments,  Gutenberg  did  not 
rest  idle.  If  he  had  seen  his  two  enemies  rob  him  of 
his  claim  of  priority  in  the  invention,  he  had  to  show 
that,  reduced  to  his  own  exertions  and  to  the  restricted 
means  furnished  him  by  charitable  people,  he  also 
could  print  well.  Two  years  after  the  Bible  a  dated 
book,  composed  in  Gothic  letters,  appeared  at  Mayence ;  ~\ 
this  was  the  Catholicon  of  John  Balbus,  of  Genoa. 
It  had  not  yet  occurred  to  these  first  printers  to  exer- 
cise their  art  otherwise  than  on  religious  works.  It 
is  admitted  by  general  opinion  that  the  Catholicon 
issued  from  the  press  of  Gutenberg ;  on  the  other 
hand,  M.  Bernard  believes  that  it  ought  to  be  attributed 
to  a  printer  of  Eltvil,  who  published  in  1467  a  vocabu- 
lary called  the  Vocabularium  ex  quo  with  the  same  types. 
The  former  theory  may  be  sustained  by  the  words 
of  the  colophon  of  the  book,  which  is  a  sort  of  hymn 
to  God  and  a  recognition  of  the  city  of  Mayence  without 
any  mention  of  the  name  of  the  printer.  Now  in  the 
situation  in  which  Gutenberg  found  himself,  in  the 
face   of  his   rivals,  had   he  not  some  claim    to   regard 


24  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

the  great  discovery  as  his  own  ?  But  if  M.  Bernard 
is  mistaken,  and  if  our  supposition  has  no  foundation, 
what  a  beautiful  act  of  humihty,  what  a  noble  idea  of 
his  character,  Gutenberg  gives  us  in  writing,  "With 
the  aid  of  the  Most  High,  Who  releases  the  tongues  of 
infants  and  often  reveals  to  babes  that  which  is  sealed 


^ItifTimJ  pnpnoio  aiiuc  nutu  mfnntium  Uikjiig  fi 
Tint  Oifcrtc.Quj  c^  nu  o(cpc  puulio  rc«cl.\t  quoD 
fdpientibuo  rcbt.  bic  libci*  cgnrsiuo.atbolicon. 
.Ofjicc  fncarnacionio  ^iY^r)H  o5  cccc  Ix  A\m^  m  ur 
be  m<i^t|itTnA  narionio  mdire  g«rmamcr.Qu<am 
Cci  dcmonda  tarn  alto  ms^nii  lumine.dono  c^  ^ 
tMiro. ceteris  tcrrdi;  nadonibuc  p>iefcnv.illun:rjirc 
eg  oi^ri/itiis  cfl-  Aon  calami. fVili.aut  pcnnc  fufFrd 
©o.f?  mira  patwndi;  Formai;  c^  concDzoia^or 
Clone  ct  moOulo.imprcfluB  atcg  confcctus  eft. 
I0ii)€  tibi  fancbe  pattzr  nato  cu  flammc  facm.laus 
ct  bono]  ono  trino  tribuatu]  ct  uno  Gcdofic  Uu 
te  (ibm  boc  atbolicxr  plauoe  Qui  UuDare  piam 
(cmpcr  non  Ijnquc.manam    jD€(D>(S^/MJLfi£. 

Fig.  6. — Colophon  of  the  Catlwlicoii,  supposed  to  have  been  printed 
by  Gutenberg  in  1460. 

to  learned  men,  this  admirable  book  the  Catliolicon  was 
finished  in  the  year  of  the  incarnation  of  our  Saviour 
MCCCCLX.  in  the  mother-country  of  Mayence,  famous 
city  of  Germany,  which  God,  in  His  clemency,  has 
deigned  to  render  the  most  illustrious  and  the  first 
of  cities  ;  and  this  book  was  perfected  without  the 
usual  help  of  pen  or  style,  but  by  the  admirable  linking 
of  formes  and  types  "  ! 


GUTENBERG'S   PUTILS.  2$ 

The  history  of  these  men,  it  is  easy  to  understand, 
has  to  be  regarded  with  caution,  people  of  so  little 
consequence  then  that  the  authentic  documents  relat- 
ing to  them  have  for  ever  disappeared.  If  we  except 
that  of  the  Pfennigthurm  of  Strasbourg,  of  which  we 
have  before  spoken,  and  the  deed  of  claim  for  money 
from  Fust  to  Gutenberg  dated  1455,  we  are  forced 
to  quote  from  authors  living  long  afterwards,  who 
submitted,  without  knowing  better,  to  the  miserable 
errors  of  oral  tradition.  It  is  nearly  always  the  same 
with  men  who  have  occupied  a  large  place  in  the 
history  of  art ;  posterity  only  knows  of  their  genius 
at  the  time  when  no  one  knows  anything  of  them. 
For  Gutenberg  the  situation  was  still  more  terrible  ; 
a  rival,  Peter  Schoeflfer,  survived  him,  and  he  did 
not  for  his  own  reputation  care  to  preserve  his  rival's 
memory  ;  and  if,  as  is  believed,  Gutenberg  left  pupils 
and  heirs,  Henry  Bechtermuncze,  Ulrich  Zell,  and 
Weigand  Spyes,  his  misfortune  is  crowned  by  Bechter- 
muncze being  now  reputed  to  be  the  printer  of  the 
Catliolicon,  of  which  we  have  just  given  the  history/ 
Even  Albert  Pfister,  one  of  his  workmen,  dismissed  at- 
the  end  of  his  work,  having  obtained  from  his  master 
some  rejected  types,  was  presumed  later  to  have  in- 
vented printing.  We  find  this  artisan  established  at 
Bamberg  about  1460,  composing  Bibles  in  movable 
types,  the  first  known  being  that  published  in  146 1. 
But  Albert  Pfister  showed  that  he  was  not  at  all  an 
inventor  by  the  mediocrity  of  his  work,  and  more  by 
the  old  types  that  he  used.  If  he  had  known  the 
secret  of  engraving  the  punches,  he  would  have  cast 
new  letters  and  have  given  a  better  aspect  to  his  work. 


Or 


26  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

In  these  statements  all  is  supposition  and  contra- 
diction. That  which  is  certain — and  the  dates  are 
there  to  prove  it — is  the  enormous  progress  in  the 
productions  of  Peter  Schoeffer.  In  1459  he  published 
his  third  book,  Durand's  Rationale  Divinorum  Ojficiorumy 
in  folio.  As  in  the  Psalter,  Schoeffer  employed  initial 
letters  printed  in  red,  which  the  rival  workshop  could 

l^fldbocopurailu^linituac  c6pictu*ctad 
cufcbia)  tcj  tnduflric  in  aiutatc  QJagunti) 
pn-'Jobannc  fiift  auc*ct  (Sctru  fcboilror  Xx 
gcrnftjcpm  clcncii  tiiotrf  ciurclc5  cO  confu^ 
matu.  Anno  tncarnacDig  t)incc»  AV<ccc»I)ctj. 
^nvigiliaanunipcois  gfofcvirgtins^manc. 


Fig.  7. — Colophon  of  the  Bible  printed  in  1462  by  Fust  and  Schoeffer, 
which  is  the  first  dated  Bible.  There  are  two  different  editions  with 
this  signature.     The  above  is  from  the  second  edition. 

not  do  in  the  Catholicoit,  the  rubrics  of  which  are 
painted  by  hand,  as  in  manuscripts.  In  time  he  put 
forth  a  second  edition  of  the  Psalter,  always  with 
Fust's  name  joined  to  his  own.  A  great  number  of 
types  were  broken  at  the  beginning,  but  he  dreamed 
of  doing  yet  better.  In  1460  he  gave  the  Constitu- 
tiones  of  Pope  Clement  V.,  with  a  gloss  and  comment- 
aries by  John  Andre  ;  here  was  the  first  example  of  a 


DISPERSION   OF   THE   MAYENCE   PRINTERS.        2/ 

process  much  employed  in  manuscripts,  but  of  which  the 
typographical  composition  was  very  difficult.  Again, 
in  1462  a  new  Latin  Bible  issued  from  their  workshops 
in  two  folio  volumes.  It  is  the  first  dated  edition.  The 
first  volume  has  two  hundred  and  forty-two  folios  in 
double  columns,  the  second  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
nine.  It  commences  with  an  epistle  of  St.  Jerome,  and 
on  the  last  leaf  of  the  second  volume  is  the  colophon 
on  the  preceding  page. 

This  book,  one  of  the  first  worthy  of  the  name,  and 
which  is  called  by  preference  the  Mayence  Bible, 
appeared  in  one  of  the  most  troubled  epochs  that  the 
episcopal  city  had  had  to  go  through.  Subject  to  its 
archbishops,  who  were  at  the  head  of  all  the  lay  lords 
and  fighting  men,  the  city  found  itself  in  1462  the  prey 
of  two  prelates  of  equal  title  who  refused  to  give  way 
to  one  another  :  Thierry  of  Isembourg  and  Adolph  ot 
Nassau-Wiesbaden.  Adolph  surprised  Mayence  on 
the  27th  October,  1462,  pursuing  his  adversary,  who 
scaled  the  walls  with  a  rope  to  escape  quicker,  and  the 
city  was  sacked  and  pillaged  from  its  foundations.  In 
the  middle  of  this  turmoil,  what  became  of  the  obscure 
persons  who  were  then  the  printers  of  the  Bible  ? 
Doubtless  their  insignificance  saved  them  from  disaster, 
but  as  it  was  long  before  peace  was  re-established,  and 
the  entire  edition  of  their  last  volume  could  not  be 
kept  back,  we  incline  to  believe  that  they  were  for  a  time 
going  about  the  country  as  itinerant  booksellers.  Paris 
was  to  them  a  well-indicated  point  of  travel- — Paris, 
toward  which  all  German  commerce  tended.  The 
university  where  Peter  Schoeffer  was  instructed  in 
letters,  and  that  truly  passed  for  the  first  in  Europe, 


28  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

appeared  to  them  a  market  of  the  first  order.  If  we 
may  believe  Walchius  {^Decas  fabiilanmi  generis  huinani  : 
Strasbourg,  1609,  ^^^f  P-  ^^i),  John  Fust  himseU"  went 
to  that  city,  where  he  put  books  on  sale  from  sixty  crowns 
a  copy,  then  fifty,  then  forty,  according  to  the  prevailing 
system  in  matters  of  discount.  Fust  was  above  all 
things  a  merchant ;  he  led  it  to  be  believed  that  he  had 
the  marvellous  establishment  of  a  copyist  beyond  the 
Rhine,  and  he  had  disposed  of  many  copies,  when  the 
corporate  scribes  of  the  university,  becoming  aware  of 
the  imposition,  cried  out  furiously  and  declared  it  a 
diabolical  invention.  We  may  now  take  this  tale  of 
Walchius  as  a  fable,  as  the  registers  of  Parliament,  on 
being  consulted,  rest  silent  on  the  proceedings  instituted 
against  the  "  magician  "  of  Mayence.  Only  we  must  not 
lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  the  booksellers  had  their 
masters,  their  syndicate,  if  we  may  use  the  modern 
word,  charged  to  prohibit  fraudulent  publications.  They 
were  too  much  interested  in  the  suppression  of  printed 
books  to  judge  the  matter  coldly.  The  Parliament 
had  nothing  to  see  to  in  this. 

The  revolution  of  Mayence  had  otherwise  great  re- 
sults, which  were  not  affected  by  these  minor  reverses. 
The  printing  workshops,  or  at  least  the  successors 
of  Gutenberg,  began  to  be  dispersed,  and  Fust  and 
Schoeffer  having  established  a  school  of  printers  in 
the  city,  their  trade  was  no  longer  secret.  Deprived 
of  their  liberties  by  the  new  Archbishop,  many  of 
them  expatriated  themselves.  We  shall  take  occa- 
sion later  to  name  some  of  these  exiles,  through  whom 
the  art  of  printing  spread  itself  almost  simultaneously 
throughout  the  world  :  to  Cologne  and  Strasbourg,  to 


INFLUENCE   OF   GUTENBERG   ON   PRINTING.      29 

Italy  and  Spain,  without  reckoning  Holland,  France, 
Switzerland,  and  the  country  around  Mayence.  We 
have  before  named  the  episcopal  city  of  Bamberg ;  it 
had  the  singular  fortune  to  be  the  second  city  to  possess 
a  printing  office,  but  it  disappeared  as  quickly  as  it 
was  established,  with  Albert  Pfister,  without  leaving 
the  least  trace ;  we  do  not  find  printing  there  again 
before   1480,  more  than  twenty  years  later. 

Gutenberg  was  dead  before  1468.  He  was  interred 
in  the  Church  of  the  RecoUets  of  Mayence,  by  the 
pious  care  of  a  friend,  who  attributed  the  invention 
of  printing  to  him  on  his  tomb. 

We  may  begin  to  comprehend  the  influence  of  this 
man  upon  the  discovery  of  which  all  the  world  was 
then  talking,  but  the  troubles  of  the  archiepiscopal 
city  hampered  the  respective  merit  of  the  inventors. 
Peter  SchoefFer  and  John  Fust  were  not  much 
affected  by  the  political  crisis.  After  two  years'  sus- 
pension, they  reappeared  with  a  Cicero,  De  Officiis, 
1465,  quarto,  always  at  work  and  always  surpassing 
themselves.  This  time  they  freely  gave  up  religious 
publications,  and,  still  more  extraordinary,  they  em- 
ployed Greek  types. 

Such  is,  detached  from  the  incredible  contradictions 
of  writers  on  art,  and  sketched  solely  on  its  main  lines, 
the  origin  of  printing  as  it  is  established  at  this  day. 
First  came  the  image  engraved  in  relief,  which  we  have 
not  gone  to  China  to  find,  with  some  of  our  predeces- 
sors. Upon  this  image  were  often  cut,  by  the  same 
economical  process,  legends  of  explanation  that  pre- 
sented the  idea  of  imitation  of  manuscript ;  and  the 
xylographs  appeared  with  or  without  illustrations.    Then 


30  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

from  the  correction  of  errors  in  these  books  followed 
the  discovery  of  movable  characters.  This  wooden 
type,  possible  when  it  was  used  with  a  frotton  for 
printing,  would  quickly  break  under  the  press,  the 
idea  of  which  was  gained  from  the  common  press  of 
the  wine-makers.  Then  a  kind  of  metallic  type  had  to 
be  found  which  would  run  in  a  mould  struck  by  a 
punch.  This  punch  was  not  invented  for  the  purpose  ; 
it  served  previously  for  the  makers  of  coins  and  seals. 
The  fabrication  of  type  from  the  matrix  was  a  simple 
adoption.  The  lead  thrown  into  the  matrix  gave  the 
desired  type.  Thus  were  made  the  first  books,  of  which 
we  have  briefly  related  the  composition. 

As  to  the  proportion  of  glory  due  to  each  one  of 
the  first  printers,  it  is  necessary  equally,  to  guard 
against  error  on  one  side  or  the  other.  We  have  sought 
to  separate  from  the  heap  of  publications  probable 
opinions  or  those  based  on  certain  documents.  That 
the  origin  of  the  Donatus,  the  block  books,  was  Dutch 
would  be  puerile  to  deny,  because,  on  one  side,  the 
engravings  on  blocks  are  surely  of  the  school  of  Van 
JEyck,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  Ulrich  Zell,  who  inspired 
'the  "Cologne  Chronicle"  of  1499,  assigned  positively  to 
Holland  the  cradle  of  the  Donatus.  At  any  rate,  it  was 
a  pupil  of  Gutenberg,  a  question  we  have  discussed. 
After  that  we  will  trouble  ourselves  but  little  about 
Laurent  Coster.  The  name  makes  no  difference  in  a 
matter  of  this  kind. 

As  to  Gutenberg,  we  have  not  been  able  to  go  as  far 
as  M.  E.  Dutuit,  who  in  his  Manuel  a^ Estampcs  (vol.  i., 
p.  236,  etc.)  doubts  Gutenberg's  right  to  the  title  of 
inventor.     It  is  stated  that  in  a  letter  of  William  Fichet, 


THE   FIRST    PRINTING   OFFICES,  3 1 

prior  of  the  Sorbonne,  of  whom  we  shall  have  more  to 
say  presently,  to  Robert  Gaguin,  which  M.  A.  Claudin 
found  at  the  beginning  of  a  work  entitled  Gaspariin 
Pergamensis  orthographicv  liber ^  published  in  1470, 
nearly  twenty  years  after  the  first  work  at  Mayence, 
Gutenberg  is  proclaimed  the  inventor  of  printing. 
Without  any  other,  this  testimony  of  a  savant  who 
was  the  first  to  bring  the  German  printers  to  Paris 
appears  to  us  well  nigh  irrefutable. 

As  to  John  Fust  and  his  grandson  by  marriage, 
Peter  Schoefifer,  they  are  so  well  defended  by  their 
works,  that  there  is  no  more  to  say  here ;  doubtless 
grave  presumptions  arise  as  to  the  delicacy  of  their 
conduct  with  Gutenberg,  but  we  are  not  so  bold  as  to 
censure  them  beyond  measure.  We  know  nothing 
precise  either  of  the  time  or  of  the  men. 

Let  us  now  imagine  humble  workmen,  the  most  simple 
of  gens  de  mestiers,  to  employ  the  French  expression 
then  in  use,  shut  up  in  a  kind  of  dark  workshop,  like 
a  country  forge,  formed  in  little  groups  of  two  or 
three  persons,  one  designing  and  the  other  cutting  the 
wood,  having  near  them  a  table,  on  which  is  held  the 
engraved  block  after  its  reliefs  have  been  rubbed  with 
sombre  ink,  who  afterwards,  by  means  of  the  frotton, 
apply  the  damped  paper  to  the  raised  parts  of  the  block  ; 
we  shall  have  without  much  stretch  of  thought  all  the 
economy  of  the  xylographic  impression.  If  we  add 
to  this  primitive  workshop  the  matrix  in  which  the 
types  are  cast,  the  box  in  which  they  are  distributed, 
the  forme  on  which  they  are  arranged  to  compose 
the  pages,  and  a  small  hand-press,  with  blacker  ink  and 
paper  damped  to  permit  the  greasy  ink  to  take  better, 


32  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

we  have  a  picture  of  the  work-room  of  Gutenberg, 
Fust,  and  Schoefter,  and  of  the  first  printers  with 
movable  types. 

Thus  typography  was  born  of  painting,  passing  in 
its  infancy  through  wood-cutting,  revolutionising  ideas 
and  somewhat  the  world.  But  the  mighty  power  of 
the  new  art  was  not  confined  to  itself;  it  extended  the 
circle  of  engraving,  which  till  then  had  suffered  from  the 
enormous  difficulties  of  reproduction.  As  if  the  time 
were  ripe  for  all  these  things,  nearly  at  the  moment  when 
the  first  printers  were  distinguishing  themselves  by 
serious  works,  a  Florentine  goldsmith  accidentally  dis- 
covered the  cutting  of  cast  metal.*  What  would  have 
become  of  this  new  process  if  the  presses  of  Gutenberg 
had  not  brought  their  powerful  assistance  to  the  print- 
ing of  engravings  ?  It  will  be  found  then  that  printing 
rendered  a  hundredfold  to  engraving  for  that  which  it 
received  from  it  and  bore  it  along  with  its  own  rapid 
advance. 

Then  reappeared,  following  the  new  processes,  the 
figures  somewhat  abandoned  by  the  Mayence  workmen 
during  the  period  of  transformation.  Our  object  is  to 
speak  at  length  of  the  Book  ornamented  and  illustrated 
according  to  the  means  of  relief-cutting  or  casting ;  to 
demonstrate  the  influence  of  painting,  of  sculpture,  of 
art,  on  the  production  of  the  Book  ;  and  thus  to  help 
the  reader  at  the  same  time  to  understand  the  almost 
sudden  and  irresistible  development  of  typography, 
and  to  mention  its  foremost  representatives. 

*  The  opinion  that  Finiguerra  was  tlie  unconscious  inventor  of  casting 
engravings  is  now  abandoned. 


CHAPTER    II. 

1462    TO     1500. 

The  Book  and  the  printers  of  the  second  generation  -The  German 
workmen  dispersed  through  Europe  Caxton  and  the  introduction 
of  printing  into  England — Nicholas  Jenson  and  his  supposed 
mission  to  Mayence — The  first  printing  in  Paris  ;  William  Fichet 
and  John  Heinlein — The  first  French  printers ;  their  installation  at 
the  Sorbonne  and  their  publications — The  movement  in  France — 
The  illustration  of  the  Book  commenced  in  Italy — The  Book  in 
Italy;  engi-aving  in  relief  and  metal  plates — The  Book  in  Ger- 
many :  Cologne,  Nuremberg,  Basle  — The  Book  in  the  Low 
Countries — French  schools  of  ornament  of  the  Book  ;  Books  of 
Hours ;  booksellers  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century — Literary  taste 
in  titles  in  France  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century — Printers 
and  booksellers'  marks — The  appearance  of  the  portrait  in  the 
Book — Progress  in  England — -Caxton  and  his  followers. 


ONSIDERING  the  influence  of 
printing  on  the  book  trade  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  as  referred 
to  in  the  preceding  pages,  the 
dealers  in  manuscripts  were  not 
disposed  to  give  way  at  the  first 
blow.  An  entire  class  of  work- 
men would  find  themselves  from  day  to  day  without 
employment  if  the  new  art  succeeded  ;  these  were  the 
copyists,  miserable  scribes,  who  for  meagre  remunera- 
tion frequented  the  shops  of  the  merchants,  where  they 

3 


34  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

transcribed  manuscripts  by  the  year.  Before  printing 
the  publication  of  books  was  so  effected,  and  the  book- 
sellers were  rather  intermediaries  between  the  copyist 
and  the  buyer,  than  direct  dealers  having  shops  and 
fittings  complete.  It  is  evident  that  they  would  not 
provide  themselves  with  these  costly  books  long  in 
advance  without  being  sure  of  disposing  of  them. 

Small  as  was  the  remuneration  of  the  writers,  it  was 
much  to  them ;  and  they  were  naturally  the  first  to 
protest  against  the  new  invention.  At  the  same  time, 
their  opposition  and  that  of  the  booksellers  was  soon 
overcome,  swamped,  and  choked  by  the  growing  crowd 
of  printers.  Then,  as  always  happens  in  similar  cases, 
in  place  of  fighting  against  the  current,  most  of  the 
former  workers  in  manuscript  followed  it.  The  writers 
designed  letters  for  engraving  in  wood,  the  booksellers 
sold  the  printed  works,  and  some  of  the  illuminators 
engraved  in  relief  or  cast  their  histoyrcs.  For  a  long 
time  these  last  continued  to  decorate  books  with  the 
ornamental  drawings  with  which  they  had  adorned  the 
manuscripts,  and  so  contributed  to  form  the  fine  school 
of  illustrators  who  carried  their  art  to  so  high  a  point 
from  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

As  previously  related,  the  revolution  of  Mayence 
caused  the  flight  of  a  crowd  of  artisans  who  found  their 
liberty  suddenly  compromised  by  the  conqueror.  The 
want  of  money  at  this  time  always  brought  a  diminu- 
tion of  patronage,  and  working  printers  have  been  at 
all  times  tenacious  of  their  privileges.  It  so  happened 
that  their  guild,  in  place  of  remaining  established  at 
Mayence  many  years  longer,  was,  as  it  were,  turned 
out,  scattered  to  the  four  cardinal  points  by  the  disper- 


GERMAN  PRINTERS  DISPERSED  THROUGH  EUROPE.    35 

sion  of  its  members,  and  scattered  many  years  before 
the  natural  time.  In  point  of  fact,  in  the  common 
order  of  things,  a  workman  here  and  there  quits  the 
principal  workshop  to  try  the  world.  He  makes  his 
way  timidly,  unconscious  apostle  of  a  marvellous 
art.      If  he   sue-  ^ 

watcaa*o  grjoc^o  glogugndfTimg 
^^^eoibnojStjerflr2o  de  f  chugcen 

^cnligcg^crromni  tgrtmrndo^L 
^olummibug  CDnteyttt'pzopztifq; 

fcapto  ac  cotcccta€oiome^rjne 

ttnpcgTTa'fimto  fufa  anrng^mi'm' 
cccc«fat8t|«  bic  tJJtimo'iimtfig 


ceeds,  he  gathers 
some  pupils 
round  him  ;  if  he 
fails,  no  trace  of 
him  remains  ;  in 
any  case  inven- 
tion propagates 
itself  more 
gradually.  With 
printing  it  was  a 
thunderclap. 
Hardly  had  it 
made  its  appear- 
ance when  the 
exodus  com- 
menced. The 
greater  part  of 
the  Mayence  men 
went  to  Italy  :  to 
Subiaco    and    to 


ynQtj*  ^cquocriHio  matte  H^O-fig. 


-dmcti'^ 


Fig.  8. — Imprint  of  Arnold  Ther  Hoernen. 
printer,  of  Mayence. 


Rome,  Arnold  Pannartz,  Conrad  Sweynheira,  Ulrich 
Hahn ;  to  Venice,  John  of  Spire,  Vendelin  of  Spire, 
Christopher  Valdarfer,  Bernard  Pictor  (of  Augsburg), 
Erhardt  Ratdolt,  Peter  Loslein  ;  to  Ferrara,  Andrew 
Belfort ;  to  Foligno,  John  Neumeister ;  Henry  Aiding 
tried    Sicily;    Andrew    Vyel,    of    Worms,    printed    at 


36  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

Palermo.  Lambert  Palmart  was  at  Valencia,  in  Spain, 
in  1477  ;  Nicholas  Spindeler  at  Barcelona ;  Peter 
Hagenbach  at  Toledo  ;  not  far  from  Mayence — that 
is,  at  Cologne — Ulrich  Zell,  a  pupil  of  Gutenberg, 
who  dated  his  first  work  1466.  It  was  Arnold  Ther 
Hoernen  who  numbered  a  book  with  Arabic  figures  ; 
it  was  Koelhof  who  first  used  signatures  to  indicate 
to  the  binder  the  order  of  the  sheets  ;  it  was  at  Eltvil 
that  Henry  Bechtermuncze,  as  we  have  already  said, 
printed  his  Vocabulariujn  in  German,  with  the  types  of 
the  Catholicon;  at  Basle,  Berthold  Riippel,  of  Hanau,  was 
the  first  established  in  that  city  which  after  Ma3^ence 
did  the  most  for  printing ;  at  Nuremberg,  Koburger, 
who  took  nearly  the  first  rank  among  his  contem- 
poraries, set  as  many  as  twenty-four  presses  to  work, 
and  was  named  by  Badius  the  prince  of  printers.  And 
how  matters  went  on  !  For  instance,  the  very  year  that 
followed  the  death  of  Gutenberg,  monks,  the  Brothers 
of  the  Common  Life  of  Marienthal,  in  the  Rheingau, 
themselves  published  a  copy  of  the  indulgences  accorded 
by  Adolph  of  Nassau,  Archbishop  of  Mayence.  Before 
1480,  presses  were  every  where  in  Germany  :  at  Prague, 
Augsburg,  Ulm,  Lubeck,  Essling,  etc. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  the  Mayence  men  did  not 
turn  towards  Holland.  Is  it  that  they  found  there 
the  descendants  of  Laurent  Coster  firmly  established 
in  their  workshops  ?  Must  the  coexistence,  the  simul- 
taneous advance,  of  the  invention  in  Germany  and  in 
the  Low  Countries  be  admitted  ?  It  is  a  secret  for 
us  and  for  many  others,  but  we  know  for  certain  that 
Flemish  printers  were  established  at  Utrecht  in  1473, 
at  Delft,  Bruges,  Gouda,  Zwoll,  Antwerp,  and  Brussels. 


CAXTON   AND   THE   FIRST   ENGLISH    PRINTERS.     IJ 

At  Louvain  there  was  besides  John  of  Westphalia, 
who  pubHshed  in  1474  a  work  of  Peter  Crescens,  and 
several  other  works. 

Colard  Mansion  was  printing  at  Bruges  about  1473  ; 
and  was  employed  by  William  Caxton,  who  had  been 
for  some  years  trading  as  a  merchant  in  the  Low 
Countries,  to  print  the  "  Recuyell  of  the  Histories  of 
Troy,"  by  Raoul  Le  Fevre,  which  Caxton  had  translated 
into  English  at  the  command  of  Queen  Margaret.  This 
was  issued  in  1474,  and  was  the  first  book  printed  in 
the  English  language.  In  1475  or  1476  Caxton  returned 
to  England  with  a  fount  of  types,  which  he  had  employed 
Mansion  to  cut  and  cast  for  him,  and  established  himself 
as  a  printer  in  the  precincts  of  Westminster  Abbey... 
In  1477  he  produced  the  first  book  printed  in  England, 
"The  Dictes  and  Sayings  of  the  Philosophers,''  followed 
by  a  large  number  of  important  works,  many  of  them 
written  or  translated  by  Caxton  himself.  Thus  was 
typography  firmly  established  in  England ;  and  Caxton's 
immediate  successors,  Wynken  de  Worde,  Richard 
Pynson,  William  Machlinia,  have  had  a  glorious  roll  of 
followers,  which  has  never  been  broken  to  this  day. 
From  Westminster  the  art  spread  in  England  to  Oxford,  ; 
where  Theodoricus  Rood,  from  Cologne,  printed  an 
Exposicio  Sancti  Jeronimi  \n  1478  ;  and  to  St.  Albans  in 
1480  by  a  printer  who  has  never  been  identified,  and 
who  produced  the  famous  "  Chronicle "  and  "  Boke 
of  St.  Albans." 

The  invasion,  we  see,  had  been  most  rapid.  In  less 
than  fifteen  years,  every  important  city  had  followed 
the  movement,  and  was  ready  to  establish  printing 
offices.     If  we  may  credit  a  certain  controverted  docu- 


X 


38  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

ment,  Charles  VII.  had  on  the  3rd  of  October,  L458, 
sent  to  Mayence  one  of  the  best  medal  engravers  of  the 
Mint  of  Tours  to  study  the  process  of  which  marvels 
were  spoken:  "The  3rd  of  October,  1458,  the  King 
having  learned  that  Messire  Guthenberg,  living  at 
Mayence,  in  the  country  of  Germany,  a  dexterous  man 
in  carving  and  making  letters  with  a  punch,  had  brought 
to  light  the  invention  of  printing  by  punches  and  types, 
desirous  of  inquiring  into  such  a  treasure,  the  King  has 
commanded  the  generals  of  his  mints  to  nominate  per- 
sons well  instructed  in  the  said  cutting  and  to  send 
them  secretly  to  the  said  place  to  inform  themselves  of 
the  said  mode  and  invention,  to  understand  and  learn 
the  art  of  them,  in  order  to  satisfy  the  said  Lord 
King  ;  and  it  was  undertaken  by  Nicholas  Jenson,  who 
took  the  said  journey  to  bring  intelligence  of  the  said 
art  and  of  the  execution  of  it  in  the  said  kingdom, 
which  first  has  made  known  the  said  art  of  impres- 
sion to  the  said  kingdom  of  France  "  (Bibliotheque  de 
I'Arsenal,  Hf  467,  pp.  410,  411). 

Nicholas  Jenson  on  his  return  met  with  a  cool  recep- 
tion from  Louis  XL,  who  did  not  continue  the  works 
of  his  father.  It  may  be  supposed  that  this  coolness 
was  the  cause  of  his  expatriating  himself  and  retiring 
to  a  place  where  his  industry  could  be  better  exercised. 
Ten  years  after  the  above  mission  we  find  him  estab- 
lished at  Venice,  his  art  of  engraver  of  letters  joined 
to  that  of  printer.  His  Eusebius,  translated  by  Trape- 
zuntius,  and  his  Justinian,  were  composed  in  1470  with 
such  marvellous  and  clear  types  that  from  that  day  the 
best  typographers  have  imitated  his  founts.  In  spite 
of  its  success,  he  did  not  confine  himself  to  these  letters, 


NICHOLAS   JENSON.  39 

but  he  made  use  also  of  Gothic,  in  which  he  printed 
by  preference  pious  books. 

In  spite  of  the  attempts  of  Jenson  in  the  name  of  the 


3  ^3   ^  ^  2 


*^  2-S  3  cu 


rt     c!  3    S5    =^  *3 


.a 


o 


■a    §>  J3    S-  a    C        ^  O  ir*        X    =1 


o    1) 


King  of  France — that  is,  if  these  attempts  ever  took 
place  in  the  manner  indicated  above — the  invention  was 
not  known  to  have  commended  itself  to  the  powerful 


40  THE    PRINTED    BOOK. 

university  of  Paris.  In  general,  and  especially  for  the 
introduction  of  innovations  in  that  learned  body,  it  was 
necessary  to  fight,  to  strike  without  much  chance  of 
success,  save  in  case  of  having  acquaintance  in  the 
place.  We  have  seen  John  Fust,  obliged  suddenly 
to  retake  the  road  to  Germany,  in  a  fair  way  to  find 
himself  taxed  with  sorcery,  not  an  inconsiderable 
matter.  For  others  the  sale  of  unauthorised  books  had 
had  most  unhappy  consequences  unless  the  Parliament 
intervened.  So  ten  years  had  passed  since  the  journey 
of  Jenson,  and  ten  or  twelve  since  the  first  manifesta- 
tions of  typography  at  Mayence,  without  the  diabolical 
discovery  finding  admittance  to  the  Sorbonne.  A  still 
more  extraordinary  thing,  a  Cologne  printer  issued 
about  1472  a  small  folio  in  Gothic  type,  thirty-one 
long  lines  to  a  page,  which  was  a  work  written  in 
French.  The  Histoires  de  Troycs  of  Raoul  Le  Fevre, 
chaplain  of  the  dukes  of  Burgundy,  first  found  a 
publisher  in  Germany,  and  soon  after  another  in 
England,  before  a  single  press  was  definitely  installed 
at  Paris. 

As  we  have  said  of  Peter  Schoeffer,  numerous 
German  students  were  in  the  university,  where  they 
pursued  their  studies,  and  frequently  remained  later  as 
masters.  It  has  been  found  that  in  1458  a  former 
student  of  Leipzig  named  John  Heinlein,  a  native  of 
Stein,  in  the  diocese  of  Spire,  entered  as  regent  of  the 
college  of  Burgundy,  from  whence  he  passed  to  the 
Sorbonne  in  1462,  the  year  of  the  troubles  in  Mayence. 
After  the  manner  of  latinising  names  so  common  at 
that  time,  he  called  himself  Lapidanus,  from  the  name 
of  his   native    place,  which   means  Stone   in  German. 


THE   FIRST   PRINTING   IN    PARIS.  4 1 

Heinlein  met  in  Paris  a  Savo3'ard,  William  Fichet, 
born  in  1433  at  Petit  Bornand,.  who  became  an  associate 
of  the  Sorbonne  about  1461,  and  finally  rector  in  1468. 
These  two  men  were  great  friends,  and  their  particular 
instincts  attracted  them  to  men  of  elevated  studies.  They 
divined  at  once  the  enormous  help  printing  would  bring 
to  their  work.  Besides,  it  grieved  them  to  see  through 
the  whole  of  France,  especially  in  Touraine,  German 
colporteurs  carrying  on  their  trade  under  cover  of  other 
commerce,  a  practice  from  which  the  most  grave  incon- 
veniences might  result.  It  occurred  to  them  that  to 
prevent  fraud  they  would  themselves  create  a  printing 
establishment ;  but  if  they  deliberated  on  it,  it  must 
have  been  in  secret,  for  the  registers  of  the  Sorbonne 
are  silent  on  their  enterprise.  If  Fichet  conceived  the 
idea,  it  may  be  believed  that,  from  his  German  origin, 
Heinlein  put  it  into  execution.  M.  Philippe  thinks  that 
he  was  formerly  at  Basle.  In  all  probability  it  was  from 
that  city  he  tried  to  obtain  his  workmen.  In  1 468  six 
years  had  elapsed  since  the  craftsmen  were  dispersed 
and  fled  from  Mayence.  At  all  events,  it  was  from 
Basle  that  Ulrich  Gering,  Michael  Freyburger,  and 
Martin  Krantz,  printers  recommended  to  the  two 
Sorbonnists,  departed,  and  in  due  course  arrived  in 
Paris.  Of  these  three  men,  who  were  the  first  to 
establish  a  printing  office  on  the  French  side  of  the 
Rhine,  Ulrich  Gering  was  a  student  as  well  as  a 
printer,  so  was  Freyburger,  originally  of  Colmar. 
Krantz  was  a  letter-founder,  and  the  only  real  work- 
man of  the  three  companions. 

We  have  often  regretted  with  regard  to  these  men, 
as  also    to   Gutenberg,    Fust,   and  Schoeffer,    that   no 


42  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

really  authentic  portrait  has  transmitted  their  features 
to  us.  Every  one  will  recall  the  fur  cap  and  loose 
pantaloons  of  the  mediocre  statue  at  Mayence,  but 
there  is  really  no  portrait  of  Gutenberg.  As  to  Gering, 
M.  Philippe,  in  his  Histoirc  dc  lOriginc  dc  I'lmpriiucrie 
a  Paris,  publishes  a  grotesque  figure  muffled  in  the 
ruff  of  the  sixteenth  century,  after  a  picture  preserved 
at  Lucerne,  but  for  which  much  cannot  be  said. 
Lacaille,  in  his  Histoirc  dc  rimpriiucric,  gives  a  full- 
length  portrait  of  Gering,  said  to  be  taken  from  a 
painting  in  the  College  Montagu. 

The  workshop  of  the  three  Germans  was  set  up 
within  the  walls  of  the  Sorbonne — in  ccdibus  Sorbon- 
nicis — in  1469.  There  they  set  to  work  at  once,  their 
printing  establishment  consisting  simply  of  a  room, 
none  too  light,  a  table,  a  press,  and  formes.  Krantz 
doubtless  struck  the  types  chosen  by  the  Sorbonnists, 
for  there  were  then  in  use  two  sorts  of  letters  :  German 
Gothic  and  Roman.  They  kept  to  the  Roman,  as 
being  more  round  and  clear;  and  as  soon  as  they 
obtained  matrices  and  cast  their  type,  they  entered  on 
their  task  with  ardour. 

The  tendencies  of  Fichet  and  Heinlein  were  not 
towards  transcendent  theology,  but  rather  towards  the 
literature  of  the  ancients  and  contemporary  rhetorical 
works.  Besides,  it  may  be  said,  considering  that  men  are 
far  from  perfect,  Fichet  counted  on  making  the  authorised 
presses  serve  his  own  purpose.  We  find  him  publish- 
ing a  treatise  on  rhetoric  in  quarto  in  147 1  ;  meantime 
he  supervised  the  work  confided  to  his  artists.  They 
commenced  with  a  large  volume  of  "  Letters  "  of  Gas- 
parin  of  Bergamo,  which  was  set  up  in    quarto  with 


THE   FIRST   TRINTING   IN    PARIS.  43 

Gafparim  pcrgamenfis  clatiffimi  ovato^ 
nf/Cpiftob]^  liber  Focliciter  mcipit/ 

^Aiideo  plurimum  ac  lasror  ir 
lea  tc  fcntentia  elTe^ut  nihil  a 
me  fieri  fine  caufapute[.f.go 
|eni  ctfi  multo^  uercbac  fLifp?:. 
tionef  jq?  a  me  femproniu  annquu  hm'uj 
Uai'c  meu  rciici£ba*rame  cu  ad  inaedibi/ 
It  animi  tui  fapietia  iudidti  mcu  rcf^re^/ 
ba*  nihil  eratqre  id  a  tc  improbari  pu^ 
tarcm'Nam  cam  6c  meof  noffef  moucT.'ct 
illiiis  narura  n  ignorares-'n  dubitaba  od 
de  hoc  fafto  meo  iudicaturus  effcs*  ]>sIo'a 
igit  haf  ad  tc  fccibo  Iraf^quo  nouam.  tibi 
cle  rcbuf  a  me  geftif  opinion  em  facia -Ted 
lit  fi  quando  aliter  homief  nollLof  dc  me 
fctirc  intelligcs^  tii  c\  puobc  caufam  meH 
nofti/dcfcnfione  mca  rurcipiar.M:;ec  fi  fc/ 
ceris-^  nihil  eft  quo  ulteiius  cffLcium  tu' 
urn  r equiram  •  Val c  ; 

Fig.   lo. — "  Letters"  of  Gasparin  of  Bergamo.     First  page  of  the  first 
book  printed  at  Paris,  in  1470. 

the     Roman     type,    the    form    of     which    had     been 
accepted.     At  the  end  of  the  work,  the  impression  of 


44  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

which  cost  much  time — possibly  a  year — the  three 
printers  placed  a  quatrain  in  Latin  distichs,  which 
is  at  once  a  statement  of  identity  and  a  promise  for  the 
future. 

If  we  try  to  apportion  to  each  of  the  three  printers 
his  share  in  the  making  of  the  book,  it  may  be  supposed 
that  the  intellectual  part  of  the  composition  and  the  cor- 


CDfoelix  Ipta^,:  Cafpatlni  f'lni^* 

(f.Vt  fol  lumen  Tic  docftcinam  fandif  in  orbem 
Mufarum  nutrix^regia  parLfiuf  • 
line  prope  diuinam^cu  qua  gccmania  nouit 
^ALUtem  faibcndi-^fufcipc  promenta; 
vimos  cccc  librdf'^quos  tec  induncia  finxit 

rancorum  in  tcraf«a:dibuf  atc^  tuif  ♦ 
licbael  VyAlcLCuf^Martinufcf  magiftcr 
impreffcrunt-ac  facient  aliof; 


Fig.  II. — Colophon  in  distichs  in  the  "Letters"  of  Gasparin  of  Bergamo, 
first  book  printed  at  Paris,  at  the  office  of  the  Sorbonne. 

rection  fell  to  Freyburger  and  Gering,  while  the  heavier 
work  of  founding,  placing  in  formes,  and  press  work 
fell  to  Krantz.  This  essay,  satisfactory  as  it  appeared, 
was  far  from  perfection.  The  first  Parisian  printers  had 
multiplied  abbreviations  and  irregular  contractions,  and 
enormous  difficulties  and  inevitable  faults  ensued. 
Further,  either  they  had  more  than  one  punch,  or  the 
leaden    matrix  was  deformed,  for  the  characters    fre- 


THE   FIRST    PRINTING   IN    PARIS. 


45 


quently  differ.     At  the  same  time,   we  must  commend 
them  for  having  used  the  cv  and  tv,  which  were  uni- 

t3Fquinq?  ihetozicis  elemedf  artem  extdn^ 
fecus  compaehendent'ibus  omnein;_ 


Rdficiofe  dicendi  rado(qu3e  tat'if' 
fim^  p«tct^uinc|  rebus  ad  furri' 
t  mum  confid?-' facultateifine/offldo^ 
atedayCt  inftcumento*  Nam  to' 


^^1 


iidem  iebus''qui  reliquis  audbus  dcleftanC  • 
. .  JAmites  fibi  deFmiunt; 
'  ^iH^^  V  LT  A5(qua?  eft  ccrtayfadliS/cS:  p2o 
^'^Cjpta  dicendi  potcft:a*s)tnbus  rebus  coftat-'arte^ 

tmttadone/et  exerdtadone; 

^ES  eft  p2^cepdo'quae  dat  ccrtam  uUm^ra- 

t'lonemcp  dicendi; 

JMITATIO  cft-qua  impclUmur  di  dili^ 

genu  ra  done  y  que  y  quid  yet  quatam  imitemur' 

ut  aliquo^  fi  miles  in  dicedo  ualcamus  e[{e; 

^ERCITATIO  eft  aKiduus  ufus^cofue- 

tuoccB  dicendi; 
-f^lt^NIS  eft  quse  Fit  di£k)ne  perfuafio; 
i^^^^jFFlCIVM  eft-appofite  dicere  ad  perfua 

fioncm'  Quod  opus  partibus  fuis  quinc^  con-* 

fumi^j^tiwcndoneydifpofitLoneyelaudonc; 


Fis 


-Rhctoviqitc   of   Fichet,    printed    at    Paris    in    147 1. 
marginal  ornaments  are  drawn  by  hand. 


The 


formly  written  e  in  the  manuscripts,  thus  giving  rise 
to  errors  without  number.  Their  punctuation  was  the 
comma,  semicolon,  and  full  stop. 


46  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

Fichet  and  Heinlein  had  become  the  modest  librarians 
of  the  Sorbonne,  and  this  new  employment  gave  them 
greater  facilities  for  surveillance.  The  printing  office 
did  not  remain  inactive.  It  issued  successively  the 
"  Orthography  "  of  Gasparin  of  Bergamo,  the  "  Letters  " 
of  Phalaris,  two  books  of  ^neas  Sylvius,  the  "  Con- 
spiracy of  Catiline  "  of  Sallust,  the  "  Epitome  of  Titus 
Livius"  of  Florus,  and  finally  the  "Rhetorics"  of 
William  Fichet,  which,  if  we  may  credit  a  letter  addressed 
to  Bessarion,  was  finished  in  1471.  Following  came  the 
"Letters  "  of  Bessarion,  the  Elegantia  Latince  Linguce 
of  Valla,  the  first  folio  volume  from  the  Sorbonne 
presses;  and  others,  thirteen  volumes  in  1470-71  and 
seventeen  in  1472. 

At  the  end  of  1472  the  workshop  was  somewhat 
broken  up,  Fichet  having  left  for  Rome  and  Heinlein 
preaching  in  Germany.  The  three  printers  had 
shown  by  their  works  that  they  were  in  earnest ; 
besides,  they  had  from  the  first  gratuitously  distributed 
copies  among  the  nobles,  who,  being  accustomed  to 
pay  highly  for  manuscripts,  did  not  fail  to  note  the 
difference.  The  associates  then  resolved  to  quit  the 
Sorbonne  and  create  an  establishment  for  themselves  ; 
their  patrons  being  no  longer  there  to  sustain  them  in 
case  of  failure,  and  in  giving  up  their  presses  and  types 
it  may  be  judged  that  they  were  not  without  anxiety 
on  that  point. 

Their  oldest  dated  book,  the  Manipulus  Curatornm  of 
Montrochet,  was  also  the  first  that  they  printed  in  their 
new  quarters,  at  the  sign  of  the  "  Golden  Sun  "  in  the 
Rue  St.  Jacques.  They  remained  united  up  to  the 
year  1477,  when  Gering  alone  printed  at  the  "  Golden 


EARLY   BOOK   ILLUSTRATION.  47 

Sun,"  but  he  obtained  associates,  George  Mainyal  in 
1480  and  Berthold  Rembold  in  1494,  who  Uved  with 
him  in  the  Rue  de  la  Sorbonne,  where  he  established 
himself  on  leaving  the  Rue  St.  Jacques.  Ulrich  Gering 
died  on  the  23rd  of  August,  15  10,  after  a  half-century 
of  work. 

The  movement  inaugurated  by  the  Sorbonne  was 
promptly  followed.  German  workmen  opened  their 
shops  nearly  everywhere  in  France  ;  then  the  French 
themselves  scattered.  At  Lyons  in  1472  a  Frenchman- 
was  established,  the  same  at  Angers,  Caen,  Metz, 
Tro3'es,  Besancon,  and  Salins.  But  in  the  central 
provinces  we  find  Henry  Mayer  at  Toulouse,  John 
Neumeister  at  Albi  ;  in  the  east  Metlinger  at  Dijon  ; 
and  Michael  Wensler,  of  Basle,  at  Macon,  among 
others,  about   1493. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  an  epoch  of  greater  efforts. 
The  Lyons  printers  used  ornamental  letters,  from  which 
were  developed  engravings  in  the  Book.  Since  the 
block  books  illustration  had  been  neglected,  as  the  means 
w^ere  wanting  to  distribute  the  plates  here  and  there 
in  the  forme ;  Schoeffer  still  employed  initial  letters  in 
wood  very  like  vignettes.  John  Fust  was  now  dead,  but 
Peter  Schoeffer  continued  to  print  without  intermission. 

If  we  search  for  the  precise  epoch  in  which  illus- 
tration appeared  in  the  history  of  the  Book,  we  shall  \ 
perhaps  have  to  go  back  to  the  time  of  Albert  Pfister, 
printer  of  Bamberg,  who  issued  in  1461  an  edition  of 
the  "Fables  of  Ulrich  Bohner"  with  a  hundred  and 
one  figures  on  wood.  This  may  be  said  to  be  the 
unconscious  combination  of  xylography  with  typo- 
graphy,   a  kind    of  transformation  of  old  elements  to 


48  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

new  things  without  other  importance  ;  art  had  no  place 
in  this  adaptation. 

Up  to  this  time  Germany  had  not,  in  its  school  of 
painters  or  miniaturists,  men  capable  of  giving  a 
personal  impulse  to  ornament.  In  the  German  editions 
of  the  block  books  the  influence  of  Van  Eyck  had 
made  itself  felt  very  sensibly,  and  the  Flemish  had 
preserved  their  supremacy  on  this  point ;  on  the  other 
hand,  the  German  printers  who  went  to  seek  their 
fortune  in  Italy  fell  into  the  middle  of  a  circle  admir- 
ably prepared  to  receive  them  and  to  communicate 
their  ideas  to  them.  It  is  believed  that  the  first  book 
printed  in  Italy  with  woodcuts  in  the  text  and  with  an 
ascertained  date  is  the  work  of  a  German  established 
at  Rome,  Ulrich  Hahn,  in  1467.  An  account  in  the 
Annuaire  du  Bibliophile,  which,  being  without  citation 
of  authority,  we  quote  for  what  it  is  worth,  relates 
that  Ulrich  Hahn  was  established  as  a  printer  at 
Vienna  about  1462,  but  was  driven  thence  by  the  pub- 
lication of  a  pamphlet  against  the  burgomaster  of  the 
city,  and  was  attracted  to  Rome  by  Torquemada,  who 
confided  to  him  the  impression  of  his  work  the  Medi- 
tationes.  Hahn  was  an  engraver,  as  were  also  most 
of  his  confreres  at  that  time — that  is,  he  cut  in  relief 
designs  to  be  intercalated  in  the  text — and  Passavant 
relates  that  the  designs  of  the  Meditationcs  were  from 
compositions  of  Fra  Angelico,  who  died  in  1455.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  the  book,  the  printing  of  which  was 
finished  on  St.  Sylvester's  Day,  1467,  is  the  first  known 
with  engravings,  and  only  three  copies  of  it  exist  : 
one  at  Vienna,  one  at  Nuremberg,  and  one  in  Lord 
Spencer's  library  ;  it  is  composed  in  Gothic  type  in  folio. 


BOOK   ILLUSTRATION    IN    ITALY, 


49 


Illustration  found  a  true  artist  at  Verona,  Matteo 
Pasti,  wlio  furnished  designs  for  a  volume  on  military 
art  by  Valturius,  printed  in  Roman  characters  in  folio, 
at  the  expense  of  John  of  Verona,  and  dedicated  to 
Sigismond  Pandolfi.  Fasti's  eighty-two  figures  are 
simple  outlines,    and    we    here    reproduce    one    of  the 


^<ri^rM 


Fig.   13. — Wood  engraving  of  Matteo  Pasti  for  Valturius'  De  Re 
Militari :  Verona,  1472. 

principal — an  archer  shooting  at  a  butt.  Published 
in  1472,  the  volume  of  Valturius  followed  soon  after 
the  Mcditationcs,  but  the  engravings  enable  us  to  see 
how    the    Italian  process,    consisting    mostly    of   lines 

4 


50  THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 

without  shadows,  differed  from  the  Dutch  and  German. 
One  thing  to  be  remarked  here  is  the  purity  of  the 
4-  design,  in  spite  of  the  roughness  of  the  engraving  ;  we 
see  in  these  figures  ItaUan  art  at  its  height,  despite  the 
somewhat  coarse  translation  of  the  wood-cutter. 

At  Venice  the  German  inventors  had  reaped  their 
harvest.  At  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  fift}^  years 
after  the  invention  of  typography,  the  printing  offices 
and  booksellers'  shops  were  counted  by  hundreds- 
It  was  in  this  city  that  for  the  first  time  a  title  with 
frontispiece  carrying  indication  of  the  contents,  the 
place,  the  date,  and  the  name  of  the  printer,  was  given 
to  the  Book.  We  give  here  this  ornamental  title, 
placed  before  a  Calcndario  of  John  de  Monteregio, 
printed  by  Pictor,  Loslein,  and  Ratdolt  in   1476,  folio. 

The  German  Erhardt  Ratdolt  was  probably  the  pro- 
moter of  these  innovations.  He  soon  afterwards  pub- 
lished the  first  geometrical  book  with  figures,  the 
"Elements  of  Euclid,"  1482,  folio;  in  the  same  year 
he  produced  the  Poeticon  Astronomicum  of  Hyginus, 
previously  printed  at  Ferrara,  with  illustrations  on  wood 
of  excellent  design,  but  laboriously  and  unskilfully 
engraved.  Yet  the  art  of  the  Book  could  not  remain 
mediocre  in  this  city,  where  the  artists  were  creating 
marvels.  John  of  Spire  and  afterwards  Nicholas  Jenson, 
the  emigrant  from  France,  of  whom  we  have  spoken 
above,  had  created,  after  Italian  manuscripts,  that  Roman 
letter,  the  primitive  type  of  which  has  come  down  to  our 
time  very  little  retouched.  At  the  death  of  Jenson  in 
1 48 1,  his  materials  passed  into  the  hands  of  Andrew 
d'Asola,  called  Andrea  Torresani,  who  did  not  allow  the 
good  traditions  of  his  master  to  die,  and  who  produced 


EARLY   BOOK    ILLUSTRATION. 


51 


among  others  a  book  bearing  signatures,  catchwords, 
and  paging  ("  Letters  of  St,  Jerome,"  1488).  Torresani 
was  the  father-in-law  of  Aldus  Manutius,  who  was  to  be 
for  ever  illustrious  in  the  art  of  printing  at  Venice, 
and  raised  his  art  to  the  highest  perfection. 

But    if  decoration  by  means  of  relief  blocks  found 


Vcftaopiad-iogni  pirteeunlilirodoio 
Non  fu  puj  precioUgemmjmai 
Dil  kalendano  :  dje  tracucole  .-".ri) 
Con  gran  faciliu  :  ma  gran  lauorc 
Qiii  nume^aurco  :  e cum  i  fegni  fuoro 
Ddcripti  dil  gran  polodaognihr 
Qtiaiidoci  lole  :  elunaccliplifai 
Qu.inte  ten  e  fe  re^e  a  fto  tbexoi  o 
In  un  infranticufaicjual  borafia 
Qlialfaialanno  rgiorno  ; tempo  :  cmexe." 
Cl?etutti  ponri  (on  daftrologia 
loanhe  dc  monce  regio  quefco  lexc  ■■ 
Coglierral  ftutcoacionongraucfi'j 
In  breuc  tempo:  econ  pocbi  penexe- 
Chi  temccotaHpexe 
Scampaninu  I  noinidiimpreffon 
Son  qui  da  baffodi  loffioolon 


J  Bcmardiispiclorde  Augulb 
Potiusloflcm'dc  Lanccncen 
EsbiiilasijfdoL  dcAugiilti 


Fig. 


14. — Title-page  of  the  Calendario,  first  ornamental 
title  known.     Printed  in  1476  at  Venice. 


a  favourable  reception  in  Italy  and,  above  all,  a  group 
of  artists  capable  of  carrying  it  to  success,  there  were 
at  the  same  time  other  experiments  conceived  in 
a  different  way.  The  discovery  of  Maso  Finiguerra 
gave  to  the  art  a  new  process  of  reproduction,  and 
printing  presses  had  now  to  render  possible  and  practi- 


52  THE   PRINTED    BOOK. 

cable  the  working  of  engraved  plates.  In  order  to  make 
that  which  follows  comprehensible,  we  enter  into  a  few 
technical  details,  the  whole  subject  having  been  so 
admirably  and  fully  treated  by  MM.  Delaborde  and 
Duplessis. 

In  the  engraved  wood  block,  as  in  the  printing  type, 
it  is  a  projection  in  the  wood  or  metal  which,  being 
inked  and  passed  under  a  press,  leaves  on  paper  its 
lines  in  black.  Naturally  then  the  intercalation  of  an 
engraving  of  this  kind  in  typographical  composition  is 
made  without  difficulty,  and  the  impression  of  both  is 
taken  at  once.  On  the  other  hand,  a  line  engraving  is 
obtained  from  incised  lines  on  a  plate  of  copper ;  that  is, 
an  instrument  called  a  burin  traces  the  lines,  which  are 
filled  with  greas}'  ink.  These  incised  lines  only  are 
inked.  The  surface  of  the  plate  is  cleaned  off  to  avoid 
smudging.  The  sheet  of  paper  destined  for  the  im- 
pression has  then  to  be  made  very  pliable,  so  that  at 
the  striking  of  the  press  it  runs,  so  to  speak,  to  find  the 
ink  in  the  lines  and  hold  it.  It  is  therefore  impossible 
to  take  a  text  from  relief  characters  at  the  same  time 
as  an  engraved  plate. 

However,  this  kind  of  reproduction,  which,  contrary 
to  that  from  wood,  allowed  of  half-tints  or  toning  down, 
attracted  in  good  time  the  workers  at  the  Book.  It 
appeared  to  them  possible  to  reconcile  the  two  print- 
ings by  the  successive  passage  of  the  same  sheet  of  paper 
through  the  press,  to  receive  at  first  the  impression 
from  the  type  and  afterwards  to  find  the  ink  deposited 
in  the  incisions  in  the  copper.  The  first  manifesta- 
tion of  this  new  method  of  illustration  was  made  at 
Florence,   the  home  of  line  engraving,  by  Nicholas  di 


ILLUSTRATION  BY  METAL  PLATES.      53 


Fig.    15. — Engraving  on  metal  by  Baccio  Baldini  for  El  Monte  Santo 
di  Dio,  in  1477. 

Lorenzo  in   1477,  for  the  work  of  Antonio  Bettini,  of 
Siena,  called  El  Monte  Santo  di  Dio.     Here  the  artists 


54 


THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 


were  never  known.  Common  opinion  has  it  that 
Baccio  Baldini  borrowed  from  Sandro  BotticelH  the 
subjects  of  his  plates.  Itahan  engraving  always  seeks 
its  source  in  Pollajuolo,  Botticelli,  and  Baldini.  It 
is  not  the  simple  work  of  a  niellist,  but  it  had  not 
yet  reached  perfection  either  in  the  work  or  in  the 
impression  ;  the  illustrations  of  the  Monte  Santo  are 
proof  of  this,  as  are  also  those  of  the  Dante,  by  Baldini, 
in  1 48 1,  for  the  same  Nicholas  di  Lorenzo.  From  this 
we  reproduce  the  Misers. 


^* 

trgrTEHC 

f^^^i^ 

^%i 

j«  (1  ffiw\  ^gr 

fm 

^^^^^p« 

XM 

^,sM  ^ 

(^^gC^ 

ii^^^^^^^^i  ^^.  ^ 

m 

^^Kl 

^m 

Wr 

S^Bi^^^ 

s^^ 

^^;:^S 

^&,^cfe^^Jte4J 

^^"^^^5 

"-^^"^i^ 

-^^S&jaEKi-liJ 

^^^Ki^B^ 

^^?^^ 

Fig.   16. — Metal  engraving  by  Baccio  Baldini  from  the  Dante  of  1481. 

At  this  epoch  engravings  from  the  burin  were  taken 
with  a  pale  ink,  the  composition  of  which  is  very 
different  from  the  fine  black  ink  of  Schoeffer  as  well 
as  of  the  old  Italian  printers.  And  besides  in  most 
cases  the  proofs  were  obtained  with  the  /rotton,  like 
the  ancient  block  books,  an  eminently  defective  process. 
The  press  was  not  yet  well  adapted  to  the  delicate 
work  of  line  engraving,  and  the  workmen,  who  did  not 
apply  the  plates  until  after  the  text  was  printed,  pre- 


EARLY   ILLUSTRATION    IN   ITALY.  55 

ferred  not  to  risk  the  loss  of  their  sheets  by  the  use 
of  inappropriate  presses.  These,  with  the  insignificant 
attempts  made  by  the  Germans  in  1479,*  are  the 
beginnings  of  the  process  of  Hne  engraving  in  the 
ornamentation  of  the  Book.  In  fact,  the  process  failed 
to  take  its  due  position  for  want  of  a  more  con- 
venient mode  of  working.  Relief  engraving  had  got 
ahead  ;  with  it  the  sheets  used  for  the  impression 
did  not  require  working  more  than  once  to  register 
the  figures  with  the  text ;  in  a  word,  the  labour 
was  not  so  great.  A  century  had  to  pass  before  line 
engraving  completely  dethroned  the  vignette  on  wood, 
a  century  in  which  the  latter  attained  its  height,  and 
showed  what  able  artisans  could  make  of  a  process 
apparently  the  least  flexible. 

Not  to  leave  Italy,  which  had  the  honour  of  making 
the  book  with  engraved  illustrations  known  to  the  world, 
we  pass  by  some  years,  during  which  Arnold  Bucking 
gave  at  Rome  a  Cosniographia  of  Ptolemy,  1478,  with 
incised  plates,  which  is  the  first  printed  atlas  that  was 
produced,  whilst  as  regards  ordinary  publications  there 
appeared  in  all  parts  classical  and  Italian  works,  such 
as  Cicero,  Virgil,  Tacitus,  Pliny,  Eusebius,  among  the 
ancients,  and  Dante,  Petrarch,  Boccaccio,  etc.,  among 
moderns.  Among  the  editions  of  Dante,  we  may  cite 
that  of  Peter  of  Cremona,  dated  i8th  November,  1491, 
with  one  engraving  to  each  canto,  of  which  the  earlier 
are  after  Botticelli,  and  perhaps  drawn  by  him  directly 
on  the  wood.  Passavant  believes  these  figures  to  be 
cut  in  relief  in  the  metal.     On  some  of  the  plates  there 

*  Breviariiim  ecclesie  Herbipolensis :  Et.  Dokl.,    1479,  folio,  copper 
plate  engravings. 


56 


THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 


is  a  signature,  a  Gothic  li,  the  signification  of  which 
leaves  a  free  field  for  conjecture,  and  perhaps  for 
error.  Copies  of  this  book  with  the  complete  series  of 
twenty  plates  are  extremely  rare  ;  one  in  the  Hamilton 
Palace  Library  sold  in  May,  1884,  for  ^380;  the 
Royal  Library  of  Berlin  recently  agreed  to  pay  ;^  1,200 
for  a  proof  set  of  the  plates. 


A 


Fig.    17. — Plate  from  the  Hypucrotoinachia  Puiipiitlt,  printed  by 
Aldus  Manutius,  in  1499. 

As  we  shall  see  later  apropos  of  German  vignettes 
of  the  same  period,  the  characteristic  of  Italian  engrav- 
ing was  sobriety,  the  complete  absence  of  useless  work 
and  the  great  simplicity  of  the  human  figure.  This 
special  manner  will  be  found  in  the  famous  edition  of 
the    Hypncrotomachia   Poliphili    of    Francis    Colonna, 


EARLY  ILLUSTRATION  IN  ITALY. 


57 


FiiT.   18. — Plate  from  Bonino  de  Bonini's  Dante,  at  Brescia,  in  1487. 


printed  in  1499  by  Aldus,  copied  sixty  years  later  by 
a  French  printer,  and  lately  reproduced  in  reduced 
size. 


58  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

The  Italian  illustrators,  whether  they  were  working 
in  wood,  or,  as  some  writers  have  it,  in  metal,  adroitly 
brought  their  figures  forward  b}'  contrasting  some  rudi- 
mentary work  in  the  persons  with  the  more  accen- 
tuated and  often  stippled  ground,  which  formed  a  dark 
background.  This  was  also  the  ordinary  process  in 
their  ornaments,  among  the  most  interesting  of  which 
are  the  borders  of  the  plates  to  an  edition  of  Dante  by 
Bonino  de  Bonini,  Brescia,  1487,  of  which  a  specimen 
is  here  reproduced. 

If  we  return  from  Italy,  which  then  took  the  lead, 
to  Germany,  a  school  of  Formschncidcrs  is  found  about 
the  year  1470  at  Augsburg,  whose  secluded  work- 
shops were  of  no  benefit  to  the  booksellers.  These 
ill-advised  artisans  went  still  further.  Apparently 
furious  to  see  printing  so  widely  spread  as  to  render 
their  bad  woodcuts  difficult  to  get  rid  of,  they  united 
in  a  body  to  interdict  Gunther  Zainer  and  Schiissler 
from  putting  engravings  into  their  books.  They  must 
nevertheless  have  come  to  an  ultimate  arrangement, 
for  Zainer  printed  in  1477  a  book  on  chess  by  Jacopo 
da  Cessole,  with  vignettes.  He  was  one  of  the  few 
German  printers  who  employed  Roman  characters  in 
place  of  the  Gothic  of  Peter  Schoefifer.  At  Cologne 
in  1474  Arnold  Ther  Hoernen  published  a  work  en- 
titled Fasciculus  Teiuporuni,  with  small  illustrations 
engraved  on  wood.  A  Bible  without  date  contains  most 
interesting  illustrations.  As  to  the  celebrated  Todten- 
tantz,  or  "Dance  of  Death,"  published  about  1485, 
it  contains  forty-one  relief  plates  of  the  most  ordinary 
kind,  the  same  as  in  the  "  Chronicle  of  Cologne  "  of 
1499,  of  which  the  figures,   though  less  German,  less 


Fig.  19. — The  creation  of  woman,  plate  from  the  Schatsbchalter, 
engraved  after  Michael  Wolgemuth. 


4 


6o  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

distorted,  are  worth  little  compared  with  those  of  the 
Nuremberg  books,  more  German,  but  more  artistic. 

At  Nuremberg,  Antony  Koburger,  called  by  Badius 
the  prince  of  booksellers,  directed  an  immense  establish- 
ment, employing  more  than  a  hundred  workmen, 
without  counting  smaller  houses  at  Basle  and  Lyons. 
Koburger  was  a  capable  and  a  fortunate  man.  He 
had  at  first  put  forth  a  Bible  very  indifferently  illus- 
trated with  the  cuts  of  the  Cologne  Bible,  but  he  had 
before  him  something  better  than  copying  others. 
Michael  Wohlgemuth,  born  at  Nuremberg  in  1434, 
was  then  in  the  full  vigour  of  his  talent.  To  his  school 
the  young  Albert  Diirer  came  to  study ;  and  as  he  was 
able  to  draw  on  wood  as  well  as  to  engrave  on  copper 
and  paint  on  panel,  Koburger  was  attracted  to  him,  and 
engaged  him  to  make  a  set  of  illustrations  for  a  book. 
The  projected  work  was  the  Schatzbchalter,  a  sort  of 
ascetic  compilation,  without  interest,  without  arrange- 
ment. Michael  Wohlgemuth  set  to  work  ;  and,  thanks 
to  the  ability  of  his  engravers,  of  whom  William  Pley- 
denwurff  was  probably  one,  Koburger  was  able  to  put 
the  book  on  sale  in  the  course  of  1491  in  three  hundred 
and  fifty-two  folios  of  two  columns.  Without  being 
perfection,  the  designs  of  Wohlgemuth,  very  German, 
very  striking,  present  the  vigour  and  merit  of  the 
future  school  of  Nuremberg.  The  figure  is  no  longer 
a  simple  line,  in  the  manner  of  the  block  books,  but 
a  combination  of  interlaced  cuttings,  intended  to  imi- 
tate colour.  Those  representing  the  creation  of  Eve 
and  the  daughter  of  Jephthah  are  here  reproduced. 
In  the  search  for  harmony  between  the  text  and 
engravings  of  this  curious  work,  we  shall  find  grace 


Fig.  20.— The  daughter  of  Jephthah,  plate  taken  from  the  Schafsbe- 
halter,  engraved  after  Michael  Wolgemuth. 


62  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

and  gaiety  laid  aside,  on  the  other  hand  a  freedom 
and  boldness  that  interest  and  permit  us  to  appreciate 
at  their  value  the  Nuremberg  artists  and  Koburger, 
the  printer.  In  fact,  the  German  artists  are  more 
individual,  each  one  taken  by  himself,  than  the  Italian 
illustrators  could  be,  condemned  as  they  were  to 
the  hierarchical  commonplace  and  to  a  certain  form  of 
idealism  into  which  the  art  of  Italy  entered  little  by 
little.  The  German  painters,  naturalists  and  believers, 
presented  their  heroes  in  the  image  of  that  robust 
nature  that  was  before  their  eyes.  It  was  in  this 
rude  and  unpolished  spirit  that  Michael  Wohlgemuth 
decorated  the  Schatzhehalter ;  he  also  composed  the 
designs  for  the  "Nuremberg  Chronicle"  of  Dr.  Hartman 
Schedel,  printed  by  Koburger  in   1493. 

With  Dilrer,  at  the  latter  end  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
the  Book  was  no  more  than  a  pretext  for  engravings. 
Thausing,  his  biographer,  says  that  the  great  artist  felt 
the  necessity  of  designing  an  Apocalypse  at  Rome  at 
the  time  that  Luther  was  premeditating  his  religious 
revolution  in  face  of  the  worldly  splendours  of  the 
pontifical  court.  The  "Apocalypse,"  published  in  15 11 
in  Latin,  with  Gothic  characters,  was  an  album  of 
fifteen  large  wood  engravings.  The  Four  Horsemen  is 
the  best  of  these  plates,  and  the  boldest;  but  in  this  gross 
fancy,  in  these  poor  halting  old  hacks,  the  fantastic  and 
grand  idea  which  the  artist  meant  to  convey  can  hardly 
be  seen.  It  may  be  said  the  genius  of  Diirer  was  little 
adapted  to  vignettes,  however  large  they  were,  and  did 
not  easily  lend  itself  to  the  exigencies  of  a  spun-out 
subject.  The  title  of  his  "  Apocalypse  "  is  of  its  kind  a 
curious  example  of  German  genius,  but,  in  spite  of  its 


'J//y 


Fig.  21.— Title  of  the  "Apocalypse,"  by  Albert  Diirer,  printed  in  1498. 
First  edition,  without  text. 


64  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 


§mltiftra1Haui0* 


iBarmgomcr  ^fe(tiom0  mm 

fatis  laudata  Nauis:  per  Sebaftianu  Brant:vcrnacufo  voia 
garic^  fermone  8C  rhythino  ^  cudbo^tnortalium  fatuitatis 
femicas  cffugerc  cupietm  diredione/  fpeculo  /comodotj  BC 
falutc :  proq^incrtisignlu^Cj^ftultici^pperuainfamia/exe* 
cration€/8i  confutatione/nup  fabricata :  Atqp  iampndem 
perlacobum  Locher/cognonietoPhilomufum:Sueuii'.in 
latinu  traduita  eloquiu  :  6i  per  Sebaftianu  Brant :  deuuo 
fcdulo(jreuifa:foelici  exorditurprincipio. 

.14-9  7' 

Nihil  fine  caufa. 
Xo*de01pe 

Fig.  22. — Title  of  Sebastian  Brandt's  "  Ship  of  Fools,"  printed  in 
1497  at  Basle  by  Bergman  do  Olpe. 

vigour,  it  does  not  please  like  an  Italian  headpiece  or 
like  a  French  or  Flemish  frontispiece.  The  other  works 
of  Diirer  published  in  the  fifteenth  century,  "  The  Life 


THE   "  SHIP   OF   FOOLS." 


65 


of  the  Virgin"  and  "The  Passion,"  were  also  sets 
of  prints  that  received  a  text  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. 

For  the  rest  of  his  illustrations  Diirer  belongs  to  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  we  shall  have  occasion  to  recur 
to   his  works.     At   present   it  remains   to   speak   of  a 


Fie-. 


-The  Biblioiuaniac.     Engraving  from  the  "  Ship 
of  Fools." 


curious  work  printed  at  Basle  by  Bergman  de  Olpe 
in  1497,  which  appears  to  be  the  first  comic  concep- 
tion of  fifteenth  century  artists  :  the  Navis  Stultifera,  or 
"Ship  of  Fools,"  of  Sebastian  Brandt.  This  work  of 
the  school  of  Basle  lacks  neither  originality  nor  vigour. 
At  the  time   when   it   was  published   its   success  was 

5 


66  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

immense,  from  the  strange  tricks  of  its  clowns,  with 
fools'  caps,  with  which  every  page  was  adorned.  Alas ! 
the  best  things  fall  under  the  satire  of  these  jesters, 
even  the  Book  and  the  lover  of  books,  if  we  may 
judge  by  the  sarcasms  against  useless  publications 
volleyed  by  the  personage  here  reproduced.  "  I  have 
the  first  place  among  fools.  ...  I  possess  heaps  of 
volumes  that  I  rarely  open.  If  I  read  them,  I  forget 
them,  and  I  am  no  wiser."  Brunet  sees  in  these 
humorous  caricatures  more  art  than  is  really  to  be 
found  in  them.  Their  value  is  owing  more  to  their 
spirit  and  humour  than  to  any  other  artistic  merit. 
Even  the  engraving  is  singularly  fitted  to  the  subject, 
with  its  peculiar  cutting,  somewhat  executed  in  hair- 
lines. The  designer  was  certainly  not  a  Holbein, 
but  he  is  no  longer  the  primitive  artisan  of  the  first 
German  plates,  and    his    freedom    is   not    displeasing. 

We  have  before  spoken,  apropos  of  engraving  by  the 
burin  in  Italy,  of  the  small  share  of  Germany  in  the 
essay  at  illustration  by  that  means,  and  we  do  not  see 
a  real  and  serious  attempt  in  the  two  little  coats  of 
arms  in  copper  plate  in  the  Missalc  Hcrbipolcnse, 
printed  in   1479. 

The  Flemish  had  not  taken  any  great  flights  in 
the  midst  of  this  almost  European  movement.  The 
school  of  Burgundy,  whose  influence  was  felt  in  all  the 
surrounding  countries,  had  lost  its  authority  in  con- 
sequence of  the  progress  realized  at  Mayence.  Without 
doubt  the  great  Flemish  artists  were  there,  but  they 
were  honoured  painters,  and  their  inclination  did  not 
descend  to  seeking  the  booksellers  beyond  making 
them    offers   of  service.     Besides,  the    first    of   these. 


\ 


THE   BOOK   IN   THE   LOW   COUNTRIES.  6j 

officially  established  in  Flanders,  were  two  Germans, 
John  of  Westphalia  and  John  Veldener,  of  Cologne, 
who  established  themselves  in  the  university  of  Louvain 
in  1473,  three  years  after  the  first  Paris  printers. 
John  of  Westphalia,  who  took  his  own  portrait  for 
his  mark,  edited  the  Fascicttlus  Tcmpormn^  a  book 
which  had  enormous  success  in  the  fifteenth  century. 
At  Haarlem,  in  spite  of  the  block  books  attributed 
to  Laurent  Coster,  illustration  was  backward.  About 
1485,  a  Dutch  translation  of  the  Malhcurs  de  Troyc  of 
Le  Fevre  was  put  on  sale.  This  French  book  was 
published  at  Cologne  before  France  possessed  the 
smallest  typographical  workshop.  At  Bruges  Colard  j 
Mansion  illuminated  the  cuts  of  his  Metamorphoses  of  fx 
Ovid  in  1484.  Simple  engraving  appeared  to  him  far 
remote  from  manuscripts  of  which  the  vogue  had 
not  yet  passed  away.  At  Zwoll  Peter  van  Os,  the 
publisher,  cut  up  and  used  the  xylographic  plates  of 
the  Biblia  Paitpcriini,  while  the  master  a  la  navcttc,  John 
of  Cologne,  an  artist  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word, 
was  ornamenting  certain  popular  publications  with  his 
designs.  At  Utrecht  Veldener  came  from  Louvain  to 
establish  a  workshop.  He  published  for  the  second 
time  a  Fasciaihis  in  1480;  he  created  a  style  of 
decoration  with  flowers  and  leaves,  which  shortly 
after  developed  into  the  trade  of  Rahmenschnciders. 
Antwerp  had  attracted  Gerard  de  Leeu  from  Gouda, 
and  he  produced  the  romance  oi  Belle  Vienne,  Schiedam 
had  an  inventive  engraver  who  illustrated  an  edition  of 
the  Chevalier  Dclibere  of  Oliver  de  la  Marche,  in  folio, 
with  Gothic  letters,  after  1483,  as  we  read  in  the 
colophon  : — 


68  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

"  Cet  traittie  fut  parfait  Tan  mil 
Ouatre  cens  quatre  vings  et  trois 
Ainsi  que  sur  la  fin  d'avril 
Que  I'yver  est  en  son  exil, 
Et  que  Teste  fait  ses  explois. 
Au  bien  soit  pris  en  tous  endrois 
De  ceulx  a  qui  il  est  offert 
Par  celui  qui  Taiit  a  souffcrt, 

La  Marche." 

The  French  language,  bright  and  harmonious,  thus 
found  hospitality  in  other  countries.  For  many  ex- 
amples of  French  books  published  abroad,  we  cannot 
cite  one  German  work  printed  in  France.  Spreading 
from  the  north  to  the  south,  typography  had  from 
1490  its  two  principal  centres  at  Paris  and  Lyons. 
After  the  success  of  the  three  Germans  at  the 
Sorbonne,  events  took  their  own  course.  In  1474 
Peter  Caesaris  and  John  Stol,  two  students  who 
had  been  instructed  by  Gering  and  Krantz,  founded 
the  second  establishment  in  Paris,  at  the  sign  of  the 
"  Soufflet  Vert ; "  and  they  printed  classical  works. 
Ten  years  later  appeared  Antony  Verard,  Simon 
Vostre,  and  Pigouchet,  the  first  of  whom  gave  to 
French  bookselling  an  impulse  that  it  has  not  since 
lost ;  but  before  them  Pasquier-Bonhomme  published 
his  Grandcs  Chroniques  in  1476,  three  volumes  folio, 
the  oldest  in  date  of  books  printed  at  Paris  in 
French. 

The  French  school  of  illustration  was  at  its  most 
flourishing  point  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  but 
solely  in  miniature  and  ornamentation  by  the  pencil. 
The  charming  figures  of  the  manuscripts  had  at  this 
time  a  Flemish  and  naturalistic  tendency.     The  most 


FRENCH   SCHOOLS   OF   ORNAMENT.  69 

celebrated  of  the  great  artists  in  manuscripts,  John 
Foucquet,  could  not  deny  the  source  of  his  talent  nor 
the  influence  of  the  Van  Eyck  school,  yet  the  touch 
remained  distinctly  personal.  He  had  travelled,  and 
was  not  confined  to  the  art  circles  of  a  single  city,  as 
were  so  many  of  the  earliest  painters  of  Flanders.  He 
had  gone  through  Italy,  and  from  thence  he  trans- 
ported architectural  subjects  for  his  curious  designs  in 
the  Heurcs  of  Etienne  Chevalier,  now  at  Frankfort ;  a 
precious  fragment  of  it  is  preserved  in  the  National 
Library  of  Paris.  Side  by  side  with  this  undoubted 
master,  whose  works  are  happily  known,  lived  a  more 
modest  artist  :  John  Perreal,  called  John  of  Paris, 
painter  to  Charles  VIIL,  Louis  XII.,  and  Anne  of 
Brittany. 

In  joining  with  these  two  masters,  to  serve  as  a 
transition  between  Foucquet  and  Perreal,  John  Bour- 
dichon,  designer  to  the  kings  of  France  from  Louis  XL 
to  Francis  I.,  we  obtain  already  a  not  despicable 
assemblage  of  living  forces.  Without  doubt  these  men 
were  not  comparable  either  with  the  admirable  school 
of  Flanders,  or  the  Germans  of  Nuremberg,  or  the 
masters  of  Italy  ;  but,  moderate  as  we  may  deem  their 
merit,  they  did  their  tasks  day  by  day,  painting  minia- 
tures, colouring  coats  of  arms,  rendering  to  the  kings, 
their  masters,  all  the  little  duties  of  devoted  servants 
without  conceit,  and  preparing,  according  to  their 
means,  the  great  artistic  movement  in  France  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  That  these  men,  leaving  the 
brush  for  the  pencil,  devoted  themselves  to  design 
figures  on  wood,  is  undeniable.  It  is  said  that  one 
of  them  followed   Charles   VI 1 1,   to   the   Italian   wars, 


70  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

and  probably  sketched  the  battles  of  the  campaign  as 
they  took  place.  Now  in  the  books  published  at  this 
epoch  in  France  we  meet  with  vignettes  which  so 
very  nearly  approach  miniatures,  that  we  can  easily 
recognise  in  them  French  taste  and  finish.  Such  are, 
for  example,  the  illustrations  of  the  Mcr  des  Histoircs, 
printed  by  Le  Rouge  in  1488,  where  suppleness  of 
design  is  blended  in  some  parts  with  extraordinary 
dexterity  in  engraving.  Nevertheless,  others  leave 
something  to  be  desired  ;  they  maim  the  best  subjects  by 
their  unskilful  line  and  their  awkwardness  of  handling. 
Were  not  these  engravers  on  wood  printers  themselves  : 
the  Commins,  Guyot  Marchants,  Pierre  Lecarrons,  Jean 
Treppereis,  and  others  ?  We  are  tempted  to  see  in 
certain  shapeless  work  the  hasty  and  light  labour  of 
an  artisan  hurried  in  its  execution.  As  mentioned 
above,  the  part  taken  by  the  booksellers  in  the  making 
of  the  plates  does  not  make  our  supposition  in  itself 
appear  inadmissible. 

Printing  had  been  established  about  twenty  years  in 
Paris  when  Philip  Pigouchet,  printer  and  engraver  on 
wood,  began  to  exercise  his  trade  for  himself  or  on 
account  of  other  publishers.  Formerly  bookseller  in 
the  University,  he  transported  his  presses  to  the  Rue 
de  la  Harpe,  and  took  for  his  mark  the  curious  figure 
here  reproduced.  At  this  moment  a  veritable  mer- 
chant, Simon  Vostre,  conceived  the  idea  of  putting 
forth  Books  of  Hours,  until  then  disdained  in  France, 
and  of  publishing  them  in  fine  editions  with  figures, 
borders,  ornaments,  large  separate  plates,  and  all  the 
resources  of  typography.  The  trials  made  at  Venice 
and  Naples   between  1473    and    1476   warranted    the 


BOOKS   OF   HOURS. 


71 


enterprise.  Entering  into  partnership  with  Pigouchet, 
the  two  were  able  on  the  17th  of  April,  1488,  to  place 
on  sale  the  Hcures  a  PUsaige  dc  Rome,  octavo,  with 
varied  ornaments  and  figures.  The  operation  having 
succeeded  beyond  their  hopes,  thanks  to  the  combina- 
tion of  the  subjects  of  the  borders,  subjects  that  could 


TsmmmmQmmn 


Fig.  24. — Mark  of  Philip  Pigouchet,  French  printer  and  wood 
engraver  of  the  fifteenth  century, 

be  turned  and  re-turned  in  all  ways  so  as  to  obtain  the 
greatest  variety,  Simon  Vostre  reapplied  himself  to  the 
work,  and  ordered  new  cuts  to  augment  the  number  of 
his  decorations.  Passavant's  idea  is  commonly  received 
that   the  engraving   was   in   relief  on   metal  ;   the   line 


'J2  THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 

in  it  is  very  fine,  the  background  stippled,  and  the 
borders  without  scratches.  Wood  could  not  have  re- 
sisted the  force  of  the  press ;  the  reliefs  would  have 
been  crushed,  the  borders  rubbed  and  broken.  In  all 
the  successive  editions  hard  work  and  wear  are  not 
remarked,  and  we  are  forced  to  admit  the  use  of  a 
harder  material  than  the  pear  or  box-wood  of  ordinary 
blocks. 

According  to  his  wants,  Simon  Vostre  designed  new 
series  of  ornaments.  Among  them  were  histories  of  the 
saints,  Biblical  figures,  even  caricatures  against  Church- 
men, after  the  manner  of  the  old  sculptors,  who  thought 
that  sin  was  rendered  more  horrible  in  the  garb  of 
a  monk.  Then  there  were  the  Dance  of  Death  and 
sibyls,  allying  sacred  with  profane,  even  the  trades,  all 
forming  a  medley  of  little  figures  in  the  margins,  in 
the  borders,  nestled  among  acanthus  leaves,  distorted 
men,  fantastic  animals,  and  saints  piously  praying.  The 
Middle  Ages  live  again  in  these  bright  and  charming 
books,  French  in  their  style,  imbued  with  good  sense 
and  perfect  toleration. 

The  Book  rose  under  Simon  Vostre  and  Philip 
Pigouchet  to  the  culminating  point  of  ornamentation. 
Here  design  and  engraving  improve  and  sustain  each 
other.  It  is  not  only  the  stippled  backgrounds  of  the 
borders  that  please  the  eye.  And  who  was  this  un- 
known designer,  this  painter  of  bold  conceptions,  whose 
work  is  complete  in  little  nothings  ?  However,  the 
large  full-page  figures  have  not  always  an  originality 
of  their  own,  nor  the  French  touch  of  the  borders. 
Thus  that  of  the  Passion  here  reproduced  is  inspired 
line  for  line  by  the  German,  Martin  Schongauer.     Are 


BOOKS   OF    HOURS. 


73 


■la»tot)cttc. 


Tut  not)  toffte  pcccatilmeti;(iquarc  net) 
xfete  miquitatc  meai^cce  nunc  nj  pu(^ 
uctc  boxrn JO.'(r|'i  mane  me  queftcne  no  fu6 
f!/?att}.^ .  i^re&o  $  rebeptoi  meue  "Bmit 
fjnouiflimo  bjc  betetta  furrecfutue  fu 
£Ltt5camemeo^ibe6o  Deurt)  fafuatojc 
meu.'p.CiucSifucue  ffl  egoigfe  (i  no  afi^ 
(tocufi mei 9fpecturi fiit^t i  came.  ff.n. 
B^l^bet  axan)  mta  ^itcmce :  i>nnitta 
§^^  Qbuetfurtj  mc  cfoquiil  mcuttj .  Soi 
quar  it)  amaritubtne  aie  mtt.bica  beo.lQo 
ft  me  contcnatc'^nbica  mic0i:cucmc  ita 
iubiccs.  HBunquib  6onii  tifii  "Sibctur  ft  ca^^ 
filnietiS  (I  oppitmae  mc  qpue  manuil  tua 
axtt):(i  confifttl  tpioiti  abmueei  ICunquib 
ocufi  catna  f  181  funt:aut  ficut*5ibet  ^omo 
(ifu  '3ibe6i6':'10u»i9utb  ficutbtce^ominie 
biC6 tut  (t:  nnm  tui  ficuf  ^umana  funt fem^ 
pjoia'if^t  quercje  tntqwitatc  me^  et  pecca/ 
tuttjmcu/ccutene.^tfciaeqxnic^ifipin 
fecetirtj  cH  (it  nemo  qut  be  manu  tua  pop 
fit  ctuere.  1^.  €iut  faiatutn  tefufcttaj?!  a 
monumcto  frttbii  %u  ere  bfle  bona  rcquie 
(t  focQ  tnbuf^entte.^.  ®ut  *5ctutu6  ce  tu 
bicate  ^iuo6  (Z  moif  uoe  (i  fccufti  pec  t^nc 
■JEu  CIS  bomine  bona  tequteH).(j:c.  <r:£.ui. 


Fig.  25. —  Border  in  four  separate  blocks  in  the  Heitres  a  VUsatge  de 
Rome,  by  Pigouchet,  for  Simon  Vostre,  in  148S.  Small  figures 
from  the  "Dance  of  Death." 


we   to  suppose,  that   duplicates   of  blocks   passed  be- 
tween France  and  Germany,  or  was  a  copy  made  by 


wfeft 


gif  ^Y  jw  Twm  rf-rfi"'  rY  m  M  fT  rnn!?rT 


^mmclabia  mca  aperies  j| 


e^3[t  09  meu  annunciabit 


t^^'W^J 


^^"^^ 


^^^l^hx^ 


Fig.  26. — Plate  copied  from  Schongauer's  Carrj-ing  of  the  Cross, 
taken  from  the  Hemes  of  Simon  Vostre. 


BOOKS  OF   HOURS. 


75 


Fig.  27. — The  Death  of  the  Virgin,  plate  taken  from  the 
Heiires  of  Simon  Vostre,  printed  in  1488,  The  border 
is  separate. 


a  French  designer?  It  is  difficult  to  say.  Still  the 
coincidence  is  not  common  to  all  the  missals  of  the 
great  Parisian   bookseller.     The   Death    of  the   Virgin 


i 


^6  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

here  reproduced  is  an  evident  proof  of  it.     It  forms  part 
of  the  1488  book,  and  is  a  truly  French  work. 

It  may  be  said  that  from  the  artistic  association  of 
Philip  Pigouchet  and  Simon  Vostre  was  born  the  art  of 
illustration  of  the  Book  in  France ;  they  worked 
together  for  eighteen  years,  in  steady  collaboration,  and, 
as  far  as  we  know,  without  a  cloud.  At  Vostre's  com- 
mencement in  1488  he  lived  in  the  Rue  Neuve  Notre 
Dame,  at  the  sign  of  "  St.  Jean  I'Evangeliste  ;  "  and  in 
1520  he  was  still  there,  having  published  more  than 
three  hundred  editions  of  the  Missal,  according  to  the 
use  of  the    several   cities. 

Contemporary  with  Simon  Vostre,  another  publisher 
was  giving  a  singular  impulse  to  the  Book  by  his 
extreme  energy,  true  taste,  and  the  aid  of  first-class 
artists.  Antony  Verard,  the  most  illustrious  of  the  old 
French  booksellers,  was  a  writer,  printer,  illuminator, 
and  dealer.  Born  in  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  he  established  himself  in  Paris  on  the  Pont 
Notre  Dame,  both  sides  of  which  were  then  covered 
with  shops,  and  about  1485  commenced  his  fine 
editions  with  a  "  Decameron  "  in  French  by  Laurent  de 
Premierfait.  M.  Renouvier  remarks  in  his  notice  of 
Verard  that  his  first  books  were  not  good,  the  plates 
were  often  unskilful,  and  were  probably  borrowed  or 
bought  from  others ;  this  may  be  very  well  understood 
in  a  beginner  whose  modest  resources  did  not  permit 
bold  enterprises ;  the  figures  were  in  most  cases 
groundworks  for  miniatures,  outlines  and  sketches  rather 
than  vignettes. 

Antony  Verard  was  accustomed  to-  take  a  certain 
number  of  fine  copies  on  vellum  or  paper  of  each  book 


BOOKS   OF   HOURS. 


n 


IE 


published  by  him,  in 
which  authorised  painters 
added  miniatures  and 
ornaments.  It  is  curious 
now  to  find  what  the  cost 
to  one  of  the  great  lords 
of  the  court  of  Charles 
VIII.  was  of  one  of  these 
special  copies  in  all  the 
details  of  its  impression, 
and  we  find  it  in  a  docu- 
ment published  by  M. 
Senemaud  in  a  provincial 
journal  {Bulletin  de  la 
Socic'te  Archc'ologiqiie  dc  la 
Charcntc,  1859,  part  2, 
p.  91),  which  enables 
us    at    the    same   time    to 


m\  \x\m:  €. 


\ 


§ti6i(faftiQea 
ietuCabcrtfiitf 
tcctide.^ufpen 

iciaSie  tefutSetj 


% 


0 


b 


hi 


Fig.  28. — Border  of  the  Granges  Heures  of  Antony  Verard  : 
Paris,  1498  (?). 


penetrate  into  a  printing  office  of  a  great  French  publisher 


78  THE   PRINTED    BOOK. 

of  the  fifteenth  century.  According  to  this  document, 
V^erard  did  not  disdain  to  put  his  own  hand  to  the  work, 
even  to  carrying  the  book  to  the  house  of  his  patron 
if  he  were  a  man  of  consequence.  It  is  an  account  of 
Charles  de  Valois-Angouleme,  father  of  Francis  I,  He 
was  then  living  at  Cognac ;  and  he  ordered  Verard  to 
print  separately  for  him  on  vellum  the  romance  of  Tristan, 
the  "Book  of  Consolation"  of  Boetius,  the  Ordinaire  dit 
Chretien,  and  Heurcs  en  Francois,  each  with  illumina- 
tions and  binding.  In  the  detail  of  expenses  Verard 
omits  nothing.  He  reckons  the  parchment  at  three 
sous  four  deniers  the  sheet,  the  painted  and  illuminated 
figures  at  one  ecu  the  large  and  five  sols  the  small.  We 
give  here  the  outline  of  one  of  the  plates  of  the  Tristan, 
ordered  by  the  Due  d'Angouleme,  reduced  by  two- 
thirds,  and  from  it  it  may  be  judged  that  the  profession 
of  the  illuminator,  even  for  the  time,  was  by  no  means 
brilliant.  The  binding  was  in  dark-coloured  velvet,  with 
two  clasps  with  the  arms  of  the  Duke,  which  cost  sixty 
sous  each.  The  work  finished,  Verard  took  the  route 
for  Cognac,  carrying  the  precious  volumes.  He  was 
allowed  twenty  livres  for  carriage  ;  and  this  brings  the 
total  to  207  livres  10  sous,  equivalent  to  ;^200  to  ^240 
of  present  money. 

7  Verard  had  preceded  Simon  Vostre  in  the  publica- 
tion   of  books    of   hours,  but    his    first    volume  dated 

I 

;    1487  was  not  successful   for  the  want  of  borders  and 

frontispieces.  At  the  most  he  had  introduced  figures  in- 
tended for  illumination,  which,  as  well  as  the  vignettes, 
were  cut  in  wood.  In  1488,  the  same  year  that  Simon 
Vostre  commenced  his  publications,  Verard  put  forth, 
by  "  command  of  the  King  our  lord,"  the  book  called 


BOOKS    OF   HOURS. 


79 


the  Gra tides  Haires,  which  is  in  quarto,  Gothic  letter, 
without  paging,  twenty  lines  to  the  full  page.  This 
Graiidcs  Hciircs  contained  fourteen    engravings,   large 


Fig.  29. — Plate  from  the  Tristan  published  by  Antony  Verard,  a 
copy  of  which  was  illuminated  for  Charles  of  Angouleme. 

borders    in    four    compartments,  smaller    subjects    and 
initials  rubricated  by  hand.      He  also   published  more 
than   two    hundred   editions  between    1487   and   1513,      \/ 
and  among  them  the  Mystcre  dc  la  Passion,  with  eighty 


So  THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 

figures ;  the  Grandes  Chroniques,  in  three  folio 
volumes,  printed  by  John  Maurand  ;  the  Bataille 
Jiidaiquc  of  Flavius  Josephus ;  the  Lcgcndc  Dore'e 
of  Voragine,  all  books  for  which  he  called  to  his  aid 
rubricators,  illuminators,  and  miniaturists.  From  the 
first  he  had  two  shops  where  he  put  his  productions 
on  sale  :  one  on  the  Pont  Notre  Dame,  the  other  at  the 
Palace  of  Justice,  "au  premier  pilier  devant  la  chapelle 
oil  Ton  chante  la  messe  de  messeigneurs  les  presi- 
dents." From  1499,  when  the  Pont  Notre  Dame  was 
burned,  Verard  transported  his  books  to  the  Carrefour 
St.  Severin.  At  his  death  in  1 5 1 3  he  was  living  in  the  Rue 
Neuve  Notre  Dame,  "  devant  Nostre-Dame  de  Paris." 

Besides  Verard,  Vostre,  and  Pigouchet,  many  others 
will  be  found  who  imitated  them  in  the  publication  of 
books  of  hours.  The  first  was  John  du  Pre,  who 
published  a  Paris  missal  in  1481,  and  who  was  at  once 
printer  and  bookseller.  Like  Pigouchet,  Du  Pre  printed 
books  of  hours  on  account  of  provincial  publishers, 
without  dreaming  of  the  competition  he  was  creating 
for  himself.  The  encroachments  of  the  publishers  upon 
one  another,  the  friendly  exchanges,  the  loans  of 
plates  and  type,  form  one  of  the  most  curious  parts  of 
the  study  of  the  Book.  Thielman  Kerver,  a  German, 
also  began  to  put  forth  books  of  hours  in  1497  in  Paris, 
ornamenting  them  with  borders  and  figures  on  wood, 
and  modelling  his  work  completely  upon  that  of  Simon 
Vostre.  But  after  having  imitated  him,  he  was  asso- 
ciated with  him  in  the  publication  and  sale  of  the  Paris 
Missal ;  the  competition  of  these  men  was  evidently  an 
honest  one,  or  the  sale  of  pious  works  was  sufficient  to 
maintain  all  engaged  in  it.     Established  on  the  Pont 


iLi£.t. 


•g-  30- — Page  of  the  Gmudcs  Heiircs  of  Antony  Verard  :  Paris, 
fifteenth  century. 


82  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

St.  Michel,  at  the  sign  of  the  "  Unicorn,"  he  sold  his 
stock  to  Gilles  Remade  about  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century. 

Thielman  Kerver  in  his  own  works  shows  himself  as 
the  rival  of  Simon  Vostre.  The  Hardouins,  who  followed 
the  same  profession,  do  not  appear  to  have  attained  the 
success  of  their  predecessors ;  and,  excepting  in  the 
Hcitres  a  F Usage  de  Rome,  published  in  1503  by  Gilles 
Hardouin  on  the  Pont  au  Change,  at  the  sign  of  the 
"  Rose,"  they  servilely  imitated  them.  There  was  also 
among  the  disciples  of  Vostre  William  Eustache,  book- 
seller to  the  King,  "  tenant  la  boutique  dedans  la  grant 
salle  du  palais  du  coste  de  messeigneurs  les  presidens, 
ou  sur  les  grans  degres  du  coste  de  la  conciergerie  a 
I'ymage  St.  Jean  levangeliste."  Eustache  made  use  of 
the  work  of  Pigouchet  and  Kerver,  not  to  mention  the 
printers  of  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

We  have  named  the  principal,  the  fortunate  ones  ; 
but  what  becomes  of  the  crowd  of  other  publishers 
whose  hopes  vanished  before  the  success  of  Vostre 
and  Verard  ?  There  were  Denis  Meslier,  with  his  quarto 
Heures  de  Bourges,  and  Vincent  Commin,  bookseller  of 
the  Rue  Neuve  Notre  Dame,  who  thus  appealed  to  his 
customers : — 

"  Qui  veult  en  avoir?     On  en  treuve 
A  tres  grand  marche  et  bon  pris 
A  la  Rose,  dans  la  rue  Neuve 
De  Nostre-Dame  de  Paris." 

There  were  also  Robin  Chaillot,  Laurent  Philippe,  and 

a  hundred  others  whose  names  have  died  with  them 

or  are  only  preserved  on  the  torn  pages  of  their  works. 

But  if  books  of  this  kind  found  vogue  and  a  large 


BOOKS   OF   HOURS. 


83 


Fig.  31. — Plate  from  a  book  of  hours  of  Simon  Vostre,   representing 
the  massacre  of  the  Innocents. 


sale  at  this  epoch,  the  dealers  did  not  keep  to  pious  pub- 
lications only.  By  a  singular  mixture  of  the  sacred  and 
the  profane,  the  bookmen  put  on  sale  on  their  stalls  the 


84  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

"  Decameron  "  of  Boccaccio  as  well  as  the  "  Hours  of  the 
Immaculate  Virgin,"  ^nd  the  purchasers  thought  fit  to 
make  the  acquaintance  of  the  one  as  well  as  the  other. 
Besides,  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  had  its  literary 
preferences,  its  alluring  titles,  its  attractive  frontispieces. 
At  the  commencement  of  the  present  century  double 
titles — "Atala;  or,  The  Child  of  Mystery;"  "Waverley; 


Fig.  32. — Dance  of  Death,  said  to  be  by  Verard.     The  Pope  and 
the  Emperor. 

or,  Sixty  Years  Since" — were  common,  although  now 
out  of  fashion.  Since  then  came  books  of  travels — 
Voyages  an  Pays  des  Milliards,  etc.  In  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  even  since  the  fourteenth,  a  series  of  titles 
was  in  public  favour.  There  was  first  the  Dc'bats, 
or  "  Dialogues  :  "  Dc'bat  dc  la  Dame  ct  de  VEscuyer, 
Paris,    1490,   folio;  "Dialogue   of  Dives  and  Pauper," 


THE   DANCES   OF   DEATH. 


85 


London,  Richard  Pynson,  1493  ;  and  many  other  eccen- 
tric titles.  There  came  also  thousands  of  complaintcs, 
a  kind  of  lay  in  verse  or  prose  ;  b/asoiis,  light  pieces  de- 
scribing this  or  that  thing  ;  doctrinals,  that  had  nothing 
to  do  with  doctrine.  And  among  the  most  approved 
subjects,  between  the  piety  of  some  and  the  gaiety  ot 
others,  the  Dances  of  Death  established  themselves 
firmly,  showing,  according  to  the  hierarchy  of  classes 


Fig.  T,Z- — Dance  of  Death  of  Guyot  Marchant  in  i486.     The  Pope 
and  the  Emperor. 

then  prevalent,  Death  taking  the  great  ones  of  the  earth, 
torturing  equally  pope,  emperor,  constable,  or  minstrel, 
grimacing  before  youth,  majesty,  and  love.  Long 
before  printing  appeared,  the  Dances  of  Death  took 
the  lead ;  they  were  some  consolation  for  the  wretched 
against  their  powerful  masters,  the  revenge  of  the 
rabble  against  the  king ;  they  may  be  seen  painted, 
sculptured,  illuminated,  when  engraving  was  not  there 
to  multiply  their  use  ;  they  may  be  seen  largely  dis- 


86  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

played  on  walls,  sombre,  frightful,  at  Dresden,  Leipzig, 
Erfurt,  Berne,  Lucerne,  Rouen,  Amiens,  and  Chaise- 
Dieu.  It  was  the  great  human  equality,  attempted  first 
by  the  French,  then  by  the  inimitable  Holbein. 

We  can  imagine  the  impression  these  bitter  ironies 
made  on  the  oppressed  and  disdained  lower  classes.  The 
first  "  Dance  of  Death  "  was  produced  by  Guyot  Mar- 
chant  in  1485,  in  ten  leaves  and  seventeen  engravings, 
in  folio,  with  Gothic  characters.  Marchant  describes 
himself  as  "  demeurant  en  Champ  Gaillart  a  Paris  le 
vingt-huitiesme  jour  de  septembre  mil  quatre  cent 
quatre-vingtz  et  cinq."  The  book  must  have  gone  off 
rapidly,  for  it  was  republished  in  the  following  year, 
with  additions  and  new  engravings.  French  illustra- 
tion was  already  moving  forward,  as  may  be  judged 
by  the  reproductions  here  given  from  the  folio  edition 
of  i486.  Pope  and  emperor,  glory  and  power,  are  led 
and  plagued  by  Death,  hideous  Death,  with  open  body 
and  frightful  grin. 

We  could  wish  that  the  tendencies  and  processes 
of  what  may  be  called  the  second  generation  of  printers 
were  well  understood.  In  a  few  years  they  surmounted 
the  difficulties  of  their  art,  and  made  the  Book  a  model 
of  elegance  and  simplicity.  The  smallest  details  were 
cared  for,  and  things  apparently  the  most  insignificant 
were  studied  and  rendered  practical.  Speaking  of  titles, 
an  enormous  progress  was  here  made  in  the  publica- 
tions of  the  end  of  the  century.  In  Italy  the  subjects  of 
decoration  ordinarily  formed  a  framework  for  the  front 
page,  wherein  were  included  useful  indications.  The 
most  ancient  specimen  of  this  kind  has  already  been 
referred  to.    A  model  of  this  species  is  the  "  St.  Jerome," 


PRINTERS'   MARKS. 


87 


published  at  Ferrara  by  Lorenzo  Rossi,  of  Valenza,  in 
1497,  folio  ;  the  title,  much  adorned,  is  in  Gothic  letters  ; 
the  engraved  initial  is  very  adroitly  left  in  outline,  so  as 
not  to  burden  or  break  the  text. 

In  Germany  there  was  already  the  appearance  of  bad 
taste  and  prodigality,  the  letters  crossing  each  other, 
the   Gothic    type 
covered  with  bi-        ^ 
zarre  appendices, 
the    titles    intri- 
cate ;    later   they 
became    illegible 
even  for  the  Ger- 
mans. 

In  France  the 
first  page  gave 
the  most  circum- 
stantial indica- 
tions of  the  con- 
tents of  the  work, 
the  name  and 
abode  of  the 
printer  and  book- 
seller.  Often 
these  titles  were 
ornamented  with 

movable  frameworks,  printed  in  Gothic,  sometimes  in  two 
colours,  which  necessitated  two  printings,  one  for  the 
black  and  one  for  the  red  ink.  The  mark  of  the  printer 
or  publisher  generally  appeared,  and  it  was  nearly  always 
a  charming  work.  These  French  marks  were  all  more 
or  less  treated  heraldically ;  that  is  to  say,  the  initials 


Fig.  34- 


-Typographical  mark  of  Thielman 
Kerver. 


88  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

occupy  a  shield,  sustained  by  supporters  and  cut  with  ex- 
treme care.  The  first  was  that  of  Fust  and  Schoeffer  at 
Mayence,  of  admirable  simplicity  and  grace.  In  France 
this  early  specimen  of  the  trade  mark  took  with  Simon 
Vostre  and  Verard  the  shape  of  delicate  illustrations, 
finely  designed  and  carefully  engraved  ;  but  the  custom 
of  allusive  marks  did  not  prevail,  as  we  shall  have 
occasion  to  see,  until  the  sixteenth  century.  The  mark 
of  Pigouchet  has  already  been  given  ;  that  of  Thielman 
Kerver  is  conceived  in  the  same  principles  of  taste  and 
art.  The  sign  of  his  house  being  the  "  Unicorn,"  Kerver 
took  as  supporters  to  his  shield  two  unicorns  affrontc'es. 
In  these  colophons  are  found  philosophic  aphorisms, 
satirical  remarks,  marvels  of  poetry.  A  certain  book- 
seller paid  court  to  the  powerful  university,  which 
dispensed  glory  and  riches  to  the  poor  tradesmen  by 
buying  many  books.  Andrew  Bocard  engraved  on  his 
mark  this  flattery  as  a  border  : — 

"  Honneur  au  Roy  et  a  la  court, 
Salut  a  I'universite 
Dont  nostre  bien  procede  et  sourt. 
Dieu  gart  de  Paris  la  cite  ! "' 

The  Germans  introduced  into  their  colophons  some 
vainglorious  notices.  Arnold  Ther  Hoernen,  already 
mentioned,  who  printed  the  Tliciitonista  at  Cologne  in 
1477,  boasted  in  it  of  having  corrected  it  all  with  his 
own  hands.  Jean  Treschel,  established  at  Lyons  in 
1493,  proclaims  himself  a  German,  because  the  Germans 
were  the  inventors  of  an  art  that  he  himself  possessed 
to  an  eminent  degree.  He  prided  himself  on  being  what 
we  may  call  a  skilled  typographer  ;  "  virum  hujus  artis 
solertissimum,"   he  writes  without  false  modesty.     At 


THE    PORTRAIT   IN    THE   BOOK.  89 

times,  in  the  colophons  of  his  books,  he  attempted  Latin 
verse,  the  Sapphic  verse  of  Horace,  of  a  playful  turn, 
to  say  that  his  work  was  perfected  in  1494. 

"Arte  et  expensis  vigilique  cura 
Treschel  explevit  opus  hoc  Joannes, 
Mille  quingentos  ubi  Christus  annos 
Sex  minus  egit. 


Fig.    35. — Frontispiece  to  Terence,  published  by  Treschel  at  Lj'ons 
in  1493.     The  author  writing  his  book. 

Jamque  Lugduni  juvenes,  senesque, 
Martias  nonas  celebres  agebant 
Magna  Regina;  quia  prepotenti 
Festa  parabant." 

The  portrait  is  another  element  of  illustration,  the 
figure    of  the  author    prefixed   to    his    work.     It    had 


90  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

already  been  a  custom  in  the  manuscripts  to  paint  on 
the  first  leaf  of  the  work  the  likeness  of  him  who  com- 
posed it,  frequently  in  the  act  of  presenting  his  book  to 
some  noble  patron  ;  and  in  this  way  is  often  preserved 
the  only  known  portrait  of  either  patron  or  author. 
Printing  and  engraving  rendered  these  effigies  more 
common,  the  portraits  of  one  often  served  for  another, 
and  the  booksellers  used  them  without  very  much  scruple. 
As  we  shall  see  later,  this  became  in  the  sixteenth 
century  a  means  of  illustrating  a  book  plainly,  but  only 
at  the  time  when  the  portrait,  drawn  or  painted,  com- 
menced to  be  more  widely  used.  Previously  the  cliches 
of  which  we  speak  went  everywhere,  from  the  Italians 
to  the  French,  from  ^^sop  to  Accursius  ;  these  uncertain 
physiognomies  began  with  the  manuscript  romances 
of  chivalry,  from  whence  they  were  servilely  copied  in 
typography.  From  the  first  the  Itahans  mixed  the 
ancient  and  the  modern.  Thus  in  a  Breviarium,  printed 
in  1478,  there  is  an  engraved  portrait  of  Paul  Florentin. 
On  the  same  principle,  the  portrait  of  Burchiello,  an 
early  Italian  poet,  was  later  reproduced  in  England  as 
a  likeness  of  William  Caxton. 

In  France  the  author  is  often  represented  writing, 
and  it  was  so  up  to  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
In  an  edition  of  Dcs  Cas  des  Nobles  Homines,  by  Jean 
Dupre,  in  1483,  Boccaccio  is  represented  seated,  having 
before  him  his  French  translator,  Laurent  de  Premierfait. 
This  plate  is  one  of  the  oldest  representations  of 
authors  in  French  books.  In  the  Roman  de  la  Rose, 
first  edition  of  Paris  and  Lyons,  in  folio,  probably 
published  by  William  Leroy  about  1485,  William  de 
Lorris,  the  author,  is  shown  in  his  bed  : — 


THE   PORTRAIT   IN    THE   BOOK. 


91 


"  Une  nuyt  comme  je  songeoye, 
Et  de  fait  dormir  me  convient, 
En  dormant  un  songe  m'advint.  .  .  .'" 

There  is  also  a  portrait  of  Alain  Chartier  in  his  Fails, 


92 


THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 


printed  in  1489.  In  the  Terence  of  Treschel,  of  L3^ons, 
in  1493,  we  see  a  grammarian  of  the  fifteenth  century 
in  a  furnished  room  of  the  time  occupied  in  writing  at  a 
desk  ;  this  is  Guy  Jouvenal,  of  Mans,  the  author  of  the 
commentary. 

While  this  good  work  was  progressing  so  nobly  in 
France,  Italy,  and  Germany,  the  typographers  of  England 


Fig.  37. — The  Knight,  a  woodcut  from  Caxton's  "Game  and 
Playc  of  the  Chesse." 

were  by  no  means  idle,  although  the  illustration  of  the 
Book  in  the  fifteenth  century  was  not  there  so  forward. 
William  Caxton  had  produced  over  sixty  works,  the 
colophons  of  many  of  them  revealing  much  of  the 
personal  life  and  character  of  the  first  English  printer. 
Some  of  them  were  ornamented   with  woodcuts  ;    we 


BOOKS   PRINTED   BY   CAXTON.  93 

reproduce  two  from  the  "Game  and  Playe  of  the  Chesse," 
printed  in  foHo,  about  1476.  The  first  represents  a 
king  and  another  person  playing  at  chess  ;  the  smaller 
cut  is  a  representation  of  the  knight,  who  is  thus 
described  in  Caxton's  own  words  :  "  The  knyght  ought 
to  be  maad  al  armed  upon  an  hors  in  suche  wise  that 


-^ 

Fig.  38. —Music,  a  woodcut  from  Caxton's  "  Mirrour  of  the  World." 

he  have  an  helme  on  his  heed  and  a  spere  in  his  right 
hond,  and  coverid  with  his  shelde,  a  swerde  and  a  mace 
on  his  left  S3'de,  clad  with  an  halberke  and  plates  tofore 
his  breste,  legge  harnoys  on  his  legges,  spores  on  his 
heelis,  on  hys  handes  hys  gauntelettes,  hys  hors  wel 
broken  and  taught,  and  apte  to  bataylle,  and  coveryd 
with  hys  armes,"     The  other  Caxton  block  which  we 


94 


THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 


reproduce  is  a  representation  of  music  from  the  "  Mirrour 
of  the  World,"  a  thin  folio  volume  of  one  hundred  leaves 


Fig.  39. — William  Caxton,  troin  Rev.  J.  Lewis'  "Life." 

printed  in  148 1,  with  thirty-eight  woodcuts.  These  speci- 
mens will  serve  to  show  the  rudimentary  character  of 
English  wood  engraving  in  the  fifteenth  century.     No 


FIRST   ENGLISH    PRINTERS. 


95 


authentic  portrait  of  Caxton  is  known,  and  the  one  that 
is  generally  accepted  is  really  a  portrait  of  an  Italian 
poet,  Burchiello,  taken  from  an  octavo  edition  of  his 
work  on  Tuscan  poetry,  printed  1554  ;  this  was  copied 
by  Faithorne  for  Sir  Hans  Sloane  as  the  portrait  of 
Caxton,  and  was  reproduced  by  Ames  in  his  "  Ty- 
pographical Antiquities,"  1749.  Lewis  prefixed  the 
portrait  here  given  to  his  "  Life  of  Mayster  Willyam 
Caxton,"   1737,  which  is  a  copy  of  Faithorne's  drawing 


Fig.  40. — Mark  of  Wynken  de  Worde. 

with  some  alterations.  John  Lettou  and  William 
Machlinia  issued  various  statutes  and  other  legal  works. 
Wynken  de  Worde  continued  printing  up  to  1534, 
and  issued  over  four  hundred  works.  He  used  no  less 
than  nine  different  marks,  all  of  them  bearing  Caxton's 
initials,  evidencing  the  regard  of  the  pupil  for  his 
master  ;  the  mark  which  we  reproduce  is  one  of  rare 
occurrence.  Richard  Pynson  began  in  1493,  and  con- 
tinued well  into  the  sixteenth  century,  and  was  one  of 
the  first  of  the   "  privileged "    printers,    authorised    to 


96 


THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 


issue  the  legal  and  parliamentary  publications.  One 
of  the  marks  used  by  him  is  here  reproduced.  Julian 
Notary  began  in  1498.  The  only  style  of  illustration 
used  by  any  of  these  early  printers  was  the  woodcut,  and 
of  this  there  was  very  little  beyond  the  title-page  and 
printer's  mark.  The  artistic  form  of  the  Book  origi- 
nated on  the  Continent,  but  England  was  not  slow  to 
adopt  it  and  fashion  it  to  her  own  ends. 


Fig.  41. — Mark  of  Richard  Pynson. 

Thus  was  printing  spread  abroad,  carrying  with  it  to 
the  countries  where  it  was  established  the  rules  of  an 
unchangeable  principle ;  but,  according  to  its  surround- 
ings, it  was  so  transformed  in  a  few  years  that  its  origin 
was  no  longer  recognised.  It  was  light  in  Italy, 
heavy  in  Germany,  gay  in  France.  Painting,  of  which 
it   was    accidentally    the    issue,    returned    to    it    under 


THE   FIRST    PRINTERS.  97 

the  form  of  illustration  a  short  time  after  its  first  and 
fruitful  essays.  The  Gothic  character,  generally  used 
in  Germany,  continued  in  France  with  the  Vostres,  the 
Verards,  and  others  up  to  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth 
centur}',  although  the  first  artisans  before  this  used 
Roman  type  ;  it  was  also  the  prevailing  type  used  in 
English  books.  In  Italy  it  was  Jenson,  a  Frenchman, 
who  gave  to  the  matrix  the  alphabet  preserved  to  the 
present  time  ;  and  it  was  the  Venetians  and  Florentines 
who  learned  before  all  others  the  art  of  judicious 
ornamentation  of  the  Book.  The  French  came  very 
near  perfection,  thanks  to  their  printers  and  booksellers, 
at  the  end  of  the  century  ;  and  the  Germans  found 
illustrious  artists  to  scatter  their  compositions  in  their 
large,  heavy  works. 


5^C!^ 


CHAPTER    III. 


1500    TO     1600. 


French  epics  and  the  Renaissance  Venice  and  Aldus  Manutius — • 
Italian  illustrators — The  Germans  :  Thetierdanck,  Schiiufelein — The 
Book  in  other  countries — French  books  at  the  beginning  of  the 
century,  before  the  accession  of  Francis  I. — Geoffrey  Tory  and  his 
works-  -Francis  I.  and  the  Book — Robert  Estienne — Lyons  a  centre 
of  bookselling  ;  Holbein's  Dances  of  Death — School  of  Basle — 
Alciati's  emblems  and  the  illustrated  books  of  the  middle  of  the 
century — The  school  of  Fontainebleau  and  its  influence — Solomon 
Bernard — Cornells  de  la  Haye  and  the  Promptuairc — ^John  Cousin 
— Copper  plate  engraving  and  metal  plates — Woeriot — The  portrait 
in  the  Book  of  the  sixteenth  century — How  a  book  was  illustrated 
on  wood  at  the  end  of  the  century — Influence  of  Plantin  on  the 
Book  ;  his  school  of  engravers — General  considerations — Progress 
in  England— Coverdale's  Bible — English  printers  and  their  work 
— Engraved  plates  in  English  books 

UR  simple  division  into  chapters 
will  be  understood  without  diffi- 
culty as  not  corresponding  exactly 
with  the  most  momentous  epochs 
in  the  history  of  the  Book  in 
France  and  abroad.  Doubtless 
it  would  be  easy  for  France 
alone  to  find  some  limits  and  to  furnish  scholastic 
formulae  by  which  contemporary  publishers  might  be 
grouped.  But  in  order  to  present,  as  in  a  synoptical 
table,  an  essential  and  abridged  sketch  of  the  Book 
in    all    European   countries,  it    appeared    to    us   more 


VENICE   AND   ALDUS   MANUTIUS.  99 

convenient  to  begin  with  the  confused  and  tangled 
notions  by  centuries  and  to  unfold  in  our  review  the 
characteristic  facts  of  each  country  conjointly.  More- 
over, after  the  sixteenth  century  neither  Italy  nor  Ger- 
many could  compare  with  France,  which,  less  fortunate, 
perhaps,  at  the  beginning  than  her  neighbours,  sur- 
passed them  in  all  the  pride  of  her  genius. 

The  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century  found 
the  French  army  in  Italy,  under  the  command  of 
Louis  XII.  Marching  from  glory  to  glory,  the  French 
successively  saw  Pisa,  Capua,  and  Naples,  and  that 
which  has  since  been  called  the  Renaissance  dis- 
played itself  little  by  little  to  the  conquerors.  At 
Venice  was  living  Aldus  Pius  Manutius,  then  the 
greatest  printer  of  the  entire  world.  Aldus  was 
proprietor  of  the  celebrated  printing  office  of  Nicholas 
Jenson,  through  his  father-in-law,  Andrea  Torresani,  of 
Asola,  who  acquired  it  on  the  death  of  the  French 
printer  ;  and  he  had  in  a  few  years  reached  a  position 
in  which  he  was  without  a  rival.  We  have  seen  that 
he  composed,  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the 
admirable  volume  Hypnerotomachia,  the  renown  of  which 
became  universal.  Aldus  was  fifty-two  years  of  age, 
having  been  born  in  1447  ;  and  his  learning  was  in- 
creased by  daily  intercourse  with  learned  Italians, 
among  them  the  celebrated  Pico  de  la  Mirandola.  His 
establishment  at  Venice  in  1488  had  for  its  object  the 
creation  of  a  chair  in  Greek,  in  which  language  he  was 
well  instructed  from  his  youth.  Occupied  with  the 
idea  of  issuing  editions  of  the  principal  Greek  writers, 
which  up  to  then  remained  in  manuscript,  he  engaged 
himself  in  the  formation  of  a  printing  office.     He  first 


100 


THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 


published  the  Herone  ct  Lcandro  of  Musaeus  in  1494, 
quarto,  in  a  Greek  character  apparently  designed  by 
him,  and  perhaps  engraved  by  Francisco  da  Bologna ; 
then  the  Greek  grammar  of  Constantine  Lascaris,  with 
the  date  of  1494;  and  the  works  of  Aristotle  in  five 
folio  volumes.  At  the  time  of  the  Italian  wars  Aldus 
was  making  a  revolution  in  typography,  by  producing 

more  practical  sizes 
and  finer  characters, 
which  would  permit  a 
volume  of  the  smallest 
height  to  contain  the 
matterof  a  folio  printed 
with  large  type.  Le- 
gend says  that  the  new 
letters  were  copied 
exactly  from  the  hand- 
writing of  Petrarch, 
inclining  like  all  cur- 
sive writing  ;  the  name 
of  Italic  was  given  to 
this  character,  which 
was  also  called  Aldinc, 
from  its  inventor.  It  was  engraved  by  Francisco  da 
Bologna.  Aldus  published  in  octavo  size,  with  this 
kind  of  letter,  an  edition  of  Virgil  in  1501,  then  a 
Horace,  a  Juvenal,  a  Martial,  and  a  Petrarch  in  the 
same  year.  The  following  year,  1502,  he  gave  an 
edition  of  the  Tcrzc  Rime  of  Dante,  and  for  the  first 
time  took  as  his  typographical  mark  an  anchor  en- 
circled by  a  dolphin.* 

*  Tory  in  his  ChainpAcury  explains  thus  the  mark  of  Aldus  and  his 


Fig.  42. — The  anchor  and  dolphin, 
mark  of  Aldus  Manutius,  after  the 
original  in  the  Tcrze  Rime  of  1502, 
where  it  appears  for  the  first  time. 


ALDUS   MANUTIUS.  lOI 

His  marriage  with  the  daughter  of  Andrea  Torresani, 
of  Asola,  brought  together  into  his  possession  two  print- 
ing houses.  The  burden  became  too  heavy  for  Manutius 
to  think  henceforth  of  publishing  by  himself.  Besides, 
the  wars  did  not  allow  him  any  repose,  of  which  he 
bitterly  complained  in  his  prefaces.  He  attracted 
learned  Greek  scholars,  who  supervised,  each  one  in 
his  specialty,  the  works  in  progress,  and  founded  a 
society,  an  Aldine  academy,  in  which  the  greatest  names 
of  the  epoch  were  united.  Aldus  conveys  the  perfect 
idea  of  a  great  printer  of  those  times,  doing  honour  to 
celebrated  men,  in  spite  of  business  preoccupations  and 
of  the  annoyance  caused  by  the  war.  It  is  said  that 
Erasmus,  passing  through  Venice,  called  on  him,  and 
not  making  himself  known,  was  badly  received  by  the 
powerful  printer.  All  at  once,  at  the  name  of  the  dis- 
tinguished visitor,  Aldus,  overwhelmed  for  an  instant, 
rose  in  great  haste  and  showed  him  how  highly  hej 
appreciated  men  of  letters. 

The  war  finished  by  ruining  this  state  of  affairs.  In 
1505  Aldus  quitted  Venice  to  travel,  and  on  his  return 
found  it  poorer  than  when  he  went  away.  Andrea 
d'Asola,  his  father-in-law,  came  to  his  aid ;  but  the 
great  printer  had  received  his  death-blow  ;  and  in  spite 
of  the  activity  which  he  brought  to  the  new  establish- 
ment, he  further  declined  until  15 15,  when  he  expired, 
leaving  an  inextricable  confusion  to  his  son  Paul. 

He  had  early  abandoned  illustration  for  the  scientific 
and  useful  in  his  publications  ;  besides,  the  size  of  book 

device,  which  was  in  Greek  the  "Make  haste  slowly  "  of  Boileau  :  ' '  The 
anchor  signifies  tardiness,  and  the  dolphin  haste,  which  is  to  say  that 
in  his  business  he  was  moderate." 


102 


THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 


chosen  by  him  did  not  admit  of  plates ;  but  other 
pubhshers  employed  artists  in  the  ornamentation  of  the 
Book.  Lucantonio  Giunta,  the  most  celebrated  among 
them,  was  printer  and  engraver,  a  striking  example 
of  the  affinity  of  the  two  trades  from  their  origin. 
In  1 508  Lucantonio  Zonta,  as  he  then  spelt  his  name, 
published  a  Roman  breviary  in  large  quarto,  with  twelve 

engravings  in  the  Lom- 
bardo- Venetian  manner, 
signed  "  L.  A.,"  in  very 
good  style.  The  same 
artist  -  publisher  cut  a 
portrait  of  Virgil  for  an 
edition  of  that  poet  about 
1515.  Furthermore, 
Giunta  did  not  alone  il- 
lustrate the  book  from 
his  own  office.  Other 
designers  lent  him  their 
assistance.  We  find 
evidence  of  this  in  the 
Bible  printed  by  him 
in  1 5  19  in  small 
octavo. 
The  most  meritorious  of  the  artists  of  Venice  at  this 
time  was  John  Andrea,  known  as  Guadagnino.  He 
designed  the  vignettes  for  Florus's  epitome  of  Livy, 
printed  at  Venice  for  Melchior  Sessa  and  Peter  of 
Ravenna  (1520,  folio)  ;  in  15 16  he  copied  the  plates  of 
Durer's  Apocalypse  for  that  of  Alexander  Paganini,  of 
Venice.  A  Venetian  work  which  signalised  the  begin- 
ning of  the  sixteenth  century  was  the  Trionfo  di  Fortuna 


Fig.  43. — Mark  of  Lucantonio 
Giunta,  of  Venice. 


ITALIAN   ILLUSTRATORS.  IO3 

of  Sigismond  Fanti,  of  Ferrara,  printed  by  Agostino  da 
Portese  in  1527. 

Venice  was  the  home  of  Titian,  and  at  the  present 
time  the  great  artist  was  at  the  height  of  his  glory. 
In  15 18  two  brothers,  Nicholas  and  Dominic  dal  Gesu, 
published  a  translation  of  the  celebrated  "  Golden 
Legend  "  of  Voragine,  The  plates  which  were  added  to 
the  work  were  manifestly  inspired  by  the  school  of  the 
Venetian  master.  Unhappily  the  engravers  have  not 
always  equalled  the  genius  of  the  drawings. 

To  resume,  the  city  of  Venice  was,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  one  of  the  most  prolific  in 
publishers  and  artists  of  talent.  Since  the  first  estab- 
lishments of  the  Germans,  typography  had  successively 
employed  in  Venice  Nicholas  Jenson,  a  Frenchman, 
inventor  of  the  Roman  character  ;  Erhard  Ratdolt,  the 
first  to  employ  illustration  there ;  and  Aldus  Manutius, 
scholar  and  printer,  whose  progress  in  printing  elevated 
that  art  to  the  highest  rank  among  human  discoveries  ; 
there  were  also  remarkable  engravers  and  draughtsmen, 
among  others  Guadagnino  and  Giunta,  besides  the 
anonymous  masters  of  the  school  of  Titian.  The  part 
of  Venice  in  the  movement,  then,  was  great,  but  it  may 
be  explained  by  the  riches  of  its  citizens,  the  extent  of 
its  commerce,  and  the  genius  it  possessed. 

If  we  now  return  from  Venice  to  the  north,  to  Milan, 
the  school  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci  will  make  itself  appa- 
rent in  the  Book.  In  order  of  date  we  will  mention 
the  Mysterii  Gesta  Beatce  Veronicce  Virgmis,  published 
by  Gotardo  de  Ponte  15 18,  small  quarto,  with  figures 
in  the  style  of  Luini,  and  Vitruvius  in  Italian  by  Cesa- 
riano.      On    the   testimony  of   the   author,   the   wood 


104  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

engravings  in  a  book  of  Fra  Luca  Pacioli,  De  Divina 
Proportione,  are  attributed  to  Leonardo  da  Vinci. 
M.  Delaborde  does  not  believe  this,  but  M.  Passavant 
does. 

In  Germany,  Nuremberg  continued,  with  Albert 
Diirer  and  the  artists  of  his  school,  to  furnish  book 
illustrations  at  the  beginning  of  the  century.  The 
master  reprinted  his  valuable  engravings  of  the  "  Life  of 
the  Virgin  "in  15  1 1,  and  also  the  "  Apocalypse."     But 


Fig.  44. — Title  of  the  Thcitcrdanck.     The  flourishes  of  the 
letters  are  printed. 

after  him  the  art  commenced  to  decline;  a  hundred  years 
later  nothing  remained  of  the  honour  and  glory  gained 
by  Germany  in  the  commencement.  Among  the  most 
interesting  of  the  Nuremberg  publications  is  a  chivalric 
poem  by  Melchior  Pfinzfing,  composed  for  the  marriage 
of  Maximilian  and  Mary  of  Burgundy.  As  M.  De- 
laborde in  his  Debuts  de  rimprimcrie  well  remarks, 
this  is  not  a  book  destined  for  sale  by  a  bookseller ; 
it  is  a  work  of  art  destined  by  an  emperor  for  his 
friends,  and  he  saw  that  it  was  an  unapproachable  work. 


THE    "THEUERDANCK"   AND   SCHAUFELEIN.      105 

Bold  strokes,  majestic  letters,  intertwined  ornaments, 
are  here  multiplied.  Three  persons  worked  upon  it  for 
five  years ;  these  were,  Peutinger  says,  Hans  Leonard 
Schaufelein,  the  painter,  Jost  Necker,  the  engraver, 
and  Schonsperger,  the  printer  of  Augsburg,  who  quitted 


H6 

Fig".  45. — Plate  taken  from  the  Tlieiicrdanck,  representing  Maximilian 
and  Mary  of  Burgundy.     Engraved  on  wood  after  Schaufelein. 


his  native  city  for  Nuremberg.  When  they  were  able  to 
take  a  proof,  craftsmen  were  unwilling  to  believe  it  to 
be  a  book  composed  in  movable  characters  ;  they  were 
sure,  on  the  contrary,  that  it  was  a  true  xylograph,  cut 
in  wood  ;  and,  in  fact,  from  the  title  here  reproduced, 


I06  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

the  error  was  excusable.  This  work,  which  is  now 
called  the  Thenerdanck,  from  the  name  of  the  hero  of  the 
romance,  is  ornamented  with  a  number  of  wood  engrav- 
ings, numbered  by  Arabic  figures.  We  reproduce  one  of 
the  last  plates,  in  which  Theuerdanck — Maximilian — 
is  introduced  to  the  Queen — Mary  of  Burgundy.  The 
designs  of  Schaufelein  recall  very  nearly  the  work  of 
Albert  Diirer,  his  master  ;  but,  as  we  said  of  him,  these 
works,  heavy  and  dull,  although  very  clever,  do  not 
always  suit  as  vignettes.  Again,  our  criticism  does 
not  extend  so  much  to  the  Theuerdanck,  whose  letters, 
excessively  ornamented  and  much  flattened,  furnish 
a  framework  more  suitable  for  the  engravings  than 
would  a  more  slender  character,  which  would  be  com- 
pletely overshadowed  by  the  German  plate. 

When  we  have  mentioned  the  Passional  Christi  of 
Lucas  Cranach,  published  by  J.  Griinenberg  at 
Wittemberg  in  1521 — twenty-six  mediocre  wood  en- 
gravings— we  shall  have  cited  the  most  important  of  the 
interesting  and  rare  volumes  published  in  Germany  at 
the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

The  Netherlands,  Spain,  and  England  were  working, 
but  without  great  success.  In  the  Low  Countries 
Plantin  and  his  gigantic  enterprises  may  be  recalled. 
In  Spain  the  taste  had  not  yet  developed  itself;  and 
although  the  drawing  of  illustrations  may  be  careful 
enough,  the  wood-cutting  is  pitiable.  We  will  mention 
the  Seneca  of  Toledo  in  15 10,  and  the  "Chronicle  of 
Aragon  "  in  1523.     Of  England  we  will  speak  later. 

In  France,  on  the  contrary,  we  find  an  enormous 
commerce  in  books  at  the  commencement  of  the  six- 
teenth century.     All   the   publishers  mentioned  in  the 


EARLY   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY   FRENCH   BOOKS.      10/ 

preceding  chapter  were  still  living,  and  tiiey  were 
feeling  the  eftects  of  the  French  conquests  in  Italy. 
The  dithyrambic  literature  then  inaugurated,  and  which 
had  its  origin  under  Louis  XII.,  exercised  a  bad  influence 
equally  upon  the  printers  and  decorators  of  the  Book. 
Doubtless  the  composition  of  the  text  and  engravings 
was  done  hastily,  for  the  great  people  did  not  like  to 
wait  for  this  kind  of  history.  Le  Vergier  d'Honneiir, 
written  by  Octavian  de  St.  Gelais  and  Andry  de  la 
V'igne,  was  thus  published  about  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century  and  ornamented  with  hasty  vignettes,  probably 
at  the  expense  of  Antoine  Verard.  Upon  the  acces- 
sion to  the  throne  of  Louis  XII.,  Claude  de  Seyssel, 
his  master  of  council,  composed  Les  Loiienges  du  Roy 
Louis  XII.,  and  soon  after  translated  it  from  Latin  into 
French  for  the  same  Verard,  who  printed  it  in  1508. 

The  taste  for  historical  works  induced  the  pub- 
lishers to  produce  La  Mcr  dcs  Histoircs,  which  had  al- 
ready been  published  in  the  fifteenth  century  ;  Thielman 
Kerver  put  forth  the  "  Compendium"  of  Robert  Gaguin 
in  1500  on  account  of  Durand  Gerlier  and  John  Petit. 
The  French  version  of  this  work  was  given  in  15 14  by 
Galliot  du  Pre,  with  vignettes,  and  afterwards  under 
the  name  oi  Mirouer  Historial,  by  Renaud  Chaudiere  in 
1520,  by  Nyverd,  and  others;  the  same  with  the 
Rozicr  Historial,  with  figures,  in  1522  and  1528. 
Among  the  most  popular  works  was  the  Illustrations 
de  la  Gaidr.  et  Siiigiilaritez  de  Troyc,  by  John  le  Maire 
de  Beiges,  printed  in  Paris  and  ornamented.  In  15 12 
it  was  published  by  Geoftroy  de  Marnef,  in  15 15  by 
John  and  Gilbert  de  Marnef,  by  Regnault,  by  Philip 
le  Noir,  and    others,  always  in  the  Gothic  characters 


I08  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

which  prevailed  in  France  at  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century. 

We  give  from  the  curious  book  of  John  le  Maire 
an  interesting  woodcut  representing  Queen  Anne 
of  Brittany  as  Juno,  in  which  we  can  without  much 
difficulty  see  a  remarkable  sketch  by  a  Bourdichon  or 
a  Perreal.  The  truly  French  style  of  this  figure 
leaves  no  doubt  as  to  its  origin.  At  the  same  time,  it 
may  possibly  have  been  inspired  by  the  Virgin  of  a 
German  master,  say  one  of  1466,  judging  from  the 
accessories,  and  even  from  the  pose.  This  engraving 
will  be  found  in  the  edition  of  15 12  of  Gilbert  de 
Marnef,  in  Gothic  letter,  quarto.  On  the  reverse  are 
the  arms  and  device  of  John  le  Maire  de  Beiges. 

The  time  that  elapsed  from  the  death  of  Louis  XI. 
until  the  accession  of  Francis  I. — that  is  to  say,  from 
1483  to  15  15 — was,  to  employ  an  old  expression,  the 
golden  age  of  French  printing  and  illustration.  Under 
Charles  VIII.  and  Louis  XII.  the  designers  on  wood 
were  not  yet  affected  by  the  neighbouring  schools ; 
neither  the  accentuated  Italian  influence  nor  the 
German  processes  had  reached  them  ;  they  did  in  their 
own  way  that  which  came  to  them,  and  they  did  it  in 
their  own  fashion  and  habit,  without  foreign  influence. 
Further,  the  kings  did  not  ignore  them,  and  Louis  XII. 
preserved  to  the  printers  of  the  university  all  their 
rights  and.  privileges  in  a  magniloquent  ordinance, 
in  which  the  art  of  typography  was  extolled  in  the 
highest  terms.  It  restores  to  them  all  the  ad- 
vantages that  they  had  lost.  It  recites,  "  In  con- 
sideration of  the  great  benefit  that  has  come  to  our 
kingdom  by  means  of  the  art  and  science  of  printing. 


Fig.  46.— Vignette  taken  from  the  IlliistmtioHS  de  la  Gaiilc  et  Siiigiilaritcz  dc  Troyi 
Queen  Anne  of  Brittan}-  as  Juno. 


lie  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

the  invention  of  which  seems  more  Divine  than  human, 
which,  thanks  to  God,  has  been  invented  and  found  in 
our  time  by  the  help  and  industry  of  booksellers,  by 
which  our  holy  Catholic  faith  has  been  greatly  aug- 
mented and  strengthened,  justice  better  understood  and 
administered,  and  Divine  service  more  honourably  and 
diligently  made,  said,  and  celebrated,  ...  by  means 
of  which  our  kingdom  precedes  all  others,"  etc.,  etc. 
(Blois,  9th  April,  1 5 1 3).  Certainly  Louis  made  the  best 
of  himself  and  his  kingdom  in  this  preamble,  but  it  must 
be  recognised  that  France  already  held  a  predominant 
rank  in  the  new  industry,  and  that  beyond  the  Italians 
she  had  no  fear  of  serious  rivalry.  The  school  of 
ornamentists  made  constant  progress.  Before  the 
books  of  hours,  the  booksellers  contented  themselves 
with  miserable  blocks,  placed  side  by  side,  forming 
a  framework  of  good  and  bad  together ;  but  after 
Simon  Vostre,  Verard,  and  the  others  they  were 
•singularly  refined.  The  borders,  at  least  in  the  books 
of  hours,  had  become  the  principal  part  of  the  book ; 
they  had  in  them  flowers,  architectural,  complicated, 
and  simple  subjects,  all  of  perfect  taste  and  extreme 
elegance  ;  and,  as  we  have  observed  in  the  represen- 
tation of  Anne  of  Brittany  in  the  Illustrations  de  la 
Gaule,  the  figure  subjects  were  no  longer  mechanical, 
commonplace,  and  tiresome  blocks,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
more  often  works  specially  designed  and  engraved  by 
artists  of  merit. 

Geoffroy  Tory,  born  at  Bourges  in  1480,  continued 
after  Vostre  and  Verard  the  onward  march  of  illus- 
tration of  the  Book.  He  was  a  sort  of  encyclopaedist, 
who  knew  and  foresaw  everything,  but  with  a  singu- 


GEOFFROY   TORY   AND   HIS   WORKS. 


I  I  I 


Fig.  47. — Title  of  the  Entree  d'Ele'onore  d'Atitriche  a 
Paris,  by  Guillaume  Bochetel.  Printed  bj'  Geoffrey 
Tory  in  May,  1531,  quarto. 

larly   subtler  and   finer  genius  than  his   predecessors. 
There  is  now  very  little  doubt  that  at  first  Tory  was 


112  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

an  engraver  and  printer.  Moreover,  he  published  with 
Jean  Petit  one  of  his  first  volumes,  the  geography 
of  Pomponius  Mela,  printed  by  Gilles  de  Gourmont 
in  1507.  Tory  was  then  an  erudite  and  diffusive 
commentator.  Later  he  published  a  book  with  poor 
engravings  {Valerii Probi Grammatici Opiiscuhnn,  1 5 10), 
waiting  until  his  good  star  should  place  him  on  the 
right  road.  He  had  for  his  mark,  say  the  biblio- 
graphers, the  cross  of  Lorraine  (4^),  small  enough  to  be 
lost  in  the  ornamentation  of  his  plates.  Really  this 
sign  is  found  in  Tory's  mark — the  "  Pot  Casse " 
— the  broken  jar — and  also  sometimes  in  the  letter  G, 
which  was  his  ordinary  signature.  This  opinion, 
which  we  will  not  try  to  contradict  in  a  popular  work 
like  this,  appears  to  us  to  err,  as  others  used  this 
mark,  as  may  be  judged  from  the  essentially  different 
touches  of  engravings  bearing  the  cross  of  Lorraine, 
and  particularly  those  of  Woeriot  in  the  middle  of  the 
century. 

If  M.  A.  Bernard*  may  be  credited,  Geoftroy  Tory 
cultivated  all  the  sciences  with  equal  success.  For 
our  purpose,  suffice  it  to  recognise  his  right  to  one 
of  the  first  places  in  the  art  of  decoration  of  books 
of  hours.  Doubtless  his  travels  in  Italy  had  contri- 
buted to  modify  his  taste  and  to  detach  him  a  little  from 
^  the  sober  and  simple  manner  that  then  characterised 
French  engraving  ;  but  he  nevertheless  preserved  the 
indelible  traces  of  the  origin  of  his  art,  in  the  same  way 
as  some  people  cannot  correct  their  provincial  accent. 
The  Hcures  de  la  Vicrge,  which  he  designed,  and  which 

*   Geoffroy    Toy,  Peinirc   ct   Graveiir,    Premier  Imprimeiir  Royal, 
Rcforviateur  de  r Orthographc  et  de  la  Typogi-aphie :  Paris,  1857,  Svo. 


^^4^ 


^^M^m^ 


Omincne  in  furore 

ruo  arguas  me :  neq; 

m  ira   tua  corripias 

me» 

M  ifereremei  clbmi= 

ne,  cjuonia  infirmus 

fumtfana  me  dominc,  quoniam  con= 

furbara  funt  offa  mca. 

EiC  anjma  mca  turbara  efl:  valdc-.fed 

cu  domine  vlqiicciiiof* 

Conuertcrc  domuic,&  el-'ipc  animam 

meam:  faluum  mc  fac  pi'oprer  mife- 

ricordiamtuam. 

Q^oniam  non  eiT:  in  morrc ,  qui  me- 

mor  fit  tui:in  inferno aute,quiscons 

firebitur  ribif' 

Laborairi  in  gemitu  mcojauabo  per 

fmgulas  noites  ledtii  meum,  lachry* 

mismeisftrarum  meum  rigabo. 

Xurbatus  ^fta  fiirorc  oculus  mens. 


Fig.  48. — Full  page  of  the  Hcitres  of  Simon  de  Colines,  by  Tory. 

8 


114 


THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 


^^ 


Fig.  49. — Hettres  of  Geoffroy  Torj-.     The  Circumcision. 


he  had  engraved  about  1520,  on  account  of  Simon 
de  Colines,  is  marvellously  surrounded  b}'  ornaments, 
until    then    unknown    in    France ;    at    the    same    time, 


GEOFFROY   TORY'S   BOOKS   OF    HOURS.  I  I  5 


Fig.   50- — Heures  of  Simon  de  Colines,  with  the  mark  of 
the  Cross  of  Lorraine. 


and  in  spite  of  other  tendencies,  it  is  purely  a  French 
work,  and  the  specimen  given  here  is  a  convincing  proof. 


Il6  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

Geoffrey  Tory  composed  a  curious  book,  as  poetic 
as  learned,  in  which  he  studied  at  once  the  form  of  the 
letter  from  the  typographic  and  the  emblematic  point 
of  view,  and  also  the  French  orthography  of  the  time. 
He  tells  us  himself  that  he  was  brought  to  commence 
this  book  on  the  fete-day  of  the  kings,  1523,  when, 
after  a  frugal  repast,  he  was,  he  says,  "  dreaming  on 
my  bed  and  revolving  my  memory,  thinking  of  a 
thousand  little  fancies,  serious  and  mirthful,  among 
which  I  thought  of  some  antique  letters  that  I  had 
made  for  Monseigneur  the  treasurer  for  war.  Master 
Jehan  Grolier,  councillor  and  secretary  of  our  lord 
the  King,  amateur  of  fine  letters  and  of  all  learned 
personages."  Tory  called  his  book  Champjleury,  au- 
qucl  est  contenu  Hart  et  science  de  la  dene  proportion  des 
lettres  .  .  .  selon  le  corps  ct  Ic  visage  Jmmain,  and  he 
published  it  himself  in  small  folio,  putting  upon  it  the 
sign  of  Gilles  de  Gourmont,  in  1529. 

At  heart  Tory  had  been  fascinated  by  the  theories 
of  Durer  on  the  proportions  of  the  human  body ;  and 
he  says,  "  The  noble  German  painter  Albert  Diirer  is 
greatly  to  be  praised  that  he  has  so  well  brought  to 
light  his  art  of  painting  in  designing  geometrical  forms, 
the  ramparts  of  war,  and  the  proportions  of  the  human 
body."  He  wished  to  indicate  the  true  measure  of 
letters  to  his  contemporaries,  "  the  number  of  points 
and  turns  of  the  compass  that  each  one  requires."  The 
most  amusing  part  of  this  curious  treatise  is  his  short 
academical  preface,  where,  under  a  playful  form,  the 
great  publisher  studies  the  orthography  of  his  time, 
and  exclaims  against  the  forgers  of  new  words,  the 
Latinisers  of  the  language,    "  the  skimmers  of  Latin, 


GEOFFROY   TORY'S   "  CHAMPFLEURY." 


117 


jesters  and  gibberers,  .  .  .  who  mock  not  only  their 
shadows,  but  themselves."  The  entire  passage  was 
copied  by  Rabelais,  nearly  literally,  and  it  indicates 
that  its  author  was  possessed  of  good  sense,  which, 
unhappily,  all  his  contemporaries  were  not. 

For  the  technical  part,  he  added  to  his  theories  a 
number  of  designs 
of  geometrical  let- 
ters, but  he  was 
carried  away,  after 
the  fashion  of  the 
time,  by  Greek 
and  Roman  mo- 
dels, perhaps  a 
little  further  than 
he  meant,  losing 
himself  in  the 
midst  of  idle  dis- 
sertations. To 
these  geometrical 
engravings  he 
added  small  and 
charming  figures, 
said  to  be  by  Jean 
Perreal,  as  well 
as  emblematical  letters  of  the  nature  of  the  Y  which  is 
here  given,  with  explanatory  text  and  commentary. 
To  him  this  Y  had  two  branches  :  one  of  virtue 
and  one  of  vice  ;  that  of  virtue  shows  palms,  crowns, 
a  sceptre,  and  a  book ;  that  of  vice  birches,  a  gallows, 
and  fire. 

With  the    importance  that  cannot  be  denied   to  his 


Fig.    51.    -Emblematical    letter    Y,    taken 
from  the  Chnmpflenry  of  Geoffroy  Tory. 


ir8  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

works,  Geoffroy  Tory  founded  a  school ;  and  it  was 
from  his  workshop  that  the  plates  came  for  the  book 
of  Paulus  Jovius  on  the  dukes  of  Milan,  published  by 
Robert  Estienne  in  1549,  quarto.  The  portraits  of  the 
dukes  in  this  work  have  been  attributed  to  Tory  him- 
self, but  he  died  in  1533,  and  there  is  not  the  least 
indication  that  he  engraved  these  sixteen  portraits 
with  his  own  hand  sixteen  years  before  their  publica- 
tion. Besides,  our  doubts  as  to  the  cross  of  Lorraine 
being  the  exclusive  signature  of  Tory,  as  has  been  be- 
lieved, lead  us  to  think  it  the  collective  mark  of  a  work- 
shop, as  we  meet  it  on  works  long  after  the  death  of  the 
master.  As  a  proof,  the  mark  is  found  on  the  engrav- 
ings of  L Entree  du  Roi  a  Paris  in  i549>  which  cannot 
be  taken  as  a  posthumous  work  of  Tory,  for  these 
engravings  had  their  origin  at  a  certain  and  special 
date.  But  in  spite  of  the  absence  of  the  monogram, 
the  admirable  block  from  the  Diodorus  Siculus  of 
Antoine  Macault  might,  from  its  design  and  engrav- 
ing, be  considered  as  by  Tory  himself.  Holbein,  who, 
about  the  same  time,  designed  a  somewhat  similar 
scene,  the  King  of  France  seated  on  a  throne  receiving 
poison  from  the  hands  of  Death,  never  did  anything 
better.  Within  the  scanty  proportions  of  the  design, 
all  the  figures  are  portraits.  Duprat,  Montmorency  and 
the  three  sons  of  the  King  may  be  recognised  ;  Macault, 
on  the  left,  is  reading  his  translation  to  a  circle  of  nobles 
and  men  of  letters.  This  admirable  page  is  one  of  the 
truest  and  most  skilful  of  the  monuments  of  French 
engraving  ;  it  is  equal  to  the  best  inventions  of  Hol- 
bein, and  it  marks  the  culminating  point  of  the  illus- 
tration   of  the  Book   before  the  exaggerations  of  the 


Fig.  52. — Macault  reading  to  Francis  I.    his   translation  of  Diodorus 
Siculus.     Wood  engraving  attributed  to  Tory. 


I20  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

school  of  Fontainebleau.  Geoftroy  Tory  was  not  the 
publisher.  The  Diodorus  Siculus,  doubtless  pre- 
pared two  or  three  years  before,  was  not  published 
until  1535,  in  quarto,  with  his  ordinary  mark  of  the 
"Pot  Casse." 

We  have  now  arrived  through  him  at  the  reign  of 
Francis  I.,  who  was  called  the  father  of  letters,  and 
who  for  various  reasons  favoured  the  arts.  Doubtless 
grand  paintings  and  the  decoration  of  the  royal  palaces 
interested  him  more  than  vignettes  in  books  and  the 
efforts  of  printers  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  books  occupied 
him.  He  studied  much,  and  in  his  travels  accumulated 
many  volumes.  An  account  in  the  French  National 
Archives  shows  that  Claude  Chappuis,  his  librarian, 
packed  entire  cases,  which  were  sent  to  Dauphine  at 
the  time  of  the  wars  of  Piedmont,  the  carriage  costing 
twenty  livres  tournois.  Francis  had,  moreover,  fol- 
lowing sudden  impulses,  curious  fits  of  wantonness  and 
mischief.  It  was  perceived  a  little  later  that  the  doc- 
trines of  Luther  were  propagated  by  the  Book ;  and  the 
Sorbonne  was  up  in  arms,  on  the  pretence  of  imposing 
its  own  expurgated  text  of  the  Bible  on  the  publishers 
and  tolerating  no  other.  Theodore  Beza,  enemy  of 
the  Sorbonnists,  said  with  regard  to  this  (we  translate 
the  antique  French  literally),  "  Our  great  doctors 
with  cherubic  visage  have  forbidden  men  to  see  the 
Holy  Bible  in  vulgar  language,  of  which  every  one  has 
knowledge,  because,  they  say,  the  desire  of  knowing 
everything  engenders  nothing  but  error,  fear,  and  care. 
Argiio  sic,  if  they  so,  for  its  abuse,  wish  to  take  away 
this  book,  it  is  clear  also  that  it  is  their  duty  to  put  away 
the  wine  with  which  each  of  them  makes  himself  drunk." 


ROBERT   ESTIENNE. 


121 


This  piece  is  only  cited  to  show  to  what  lengths 
matters  had  gone,  thanks  to  printing.  It  is  very  cer- 
tain that  all  the  pamphlets,  placards,  and  other  horrors 
published  to  raise  religious  warfare,  did  not  aid  in  the 
progress  of  the  Book.  The  King  was  not  always 
disinterested  on  the  technical  question  ;  books  merited 
encouragement,  at  least  as  much  as  castigation,  and 
besides,  as  time  passed,  they  gradually  transformed 
men  and  ideas.  In  spite  of  apparent  severities,  was 
not  the  King  himself  a  little  touched  by  contact 
with  the  new  religion,  like  his 
sister  Marguerite,  or  his  sister- 
in-law,  Renee  of  Ferrara?  How- 
ever that  may  be,  he  twice  showed 
himself  a  resolute  partisan  of 
the  celebrated  Robert  Estienne, 
son-in-law  and  associate  of  Simon 
de  Colines,  whose  works  in  point 
of  erudition  and  typography  as-  Fig.  53.— Robert  Estienne, 
sumed  day  by  day  more  import-      ^;^'^''^,*^^  t"^.''^;:'"?.  '" 

■'-'■'  ^  the  Chronologic  Collee. 

ance.     Robert  Estienne   had  the 

great  honour  of  being  chosen  from  all  his  contemporaries 
by  King  Francis  as  the  royal  printer.  This  prince 
had  ordered  to  be  engraved  for  him  by  Claude  Gara- 
mond,  after  the  design  of  Ange  Vergece,  the  first 
cutter  of  matrices  of  his  time,  a  special  Greek  cha- 
racter in  three  sizes,  which  was  used  in  1544  to 
compose  the  "  Ecclesiastical  History "  of  Eusebius. 
These  are  the  famous  royal  types — typi  rcgii — as 
Estienne  did  not  fail  to  indicate  on  the  title-pages  of 
his  works.  It  has  been  said  since  that  Francis  I, 
founded  the   Royal   Printing  House,  but  the  truth  is 


122 


THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 


that  Estienne  kept  these  characters  in  his  own  office 
for  use  in  the  royal  editions ;  they  may  now  be  seen 
in  the  Imprimerie  Nationale  at  Paris. 

Robert  Estienne  married  the  daughter  of  Josse  Radius, 
of  Asch — Badius  Ascencianus,  one  of  the  first  Parisian 
typographers  of  the  time.     We  reproduce  the  mark  of 

Badius,  representing 
the  interior  of  a  print- 
ing house,  and  shall 
return  in  a  special 
chapter  to  the  func- 
tions of  these  work- 
shops. Meantime  it 
appears  proper  to 
present  to  the  reader 
a  printing  office  of 
the  time  of  Robert 
Estienne  and  GeoiTroy 
Tory. 

Robert  Estienne 
does  not  appear  to 
have  concerned  him- 
self much  about  the 
decoration  of  the 
Book.  The  purity 
of  the  text  and  the  characters  were  essentials  with 
him,  erudition,  and  not  art.  He  published  many  works 
in  Latin  and  Greek,  among  them  the  Thesaurus,  a 
great  Latin  dictionary  published  in  1532,  also  a  Bible, 
with  notes  by  Vatable,  revised  by  Leon  de  Juda.  From 
that  came  trouble.  Leon  de  Juda  was  a  partisan  of 
Zwingli ;    the  Sorbonne  accused    the   Bible  of  leaning 


Fig.  54. — Printing  office  of  Josse  Badius 
at  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 


SIXTEENTH   CENTURY    ILLUSTRATION. 


123 


towards  the  Huguenots ;  Francis  I.  took  the  part  of 
Estienne,  but  when  that  prince  died  Estienne  fled  to 
Geneva,  where  he  was  accused  of  having  imported  the 
royal  types.  The  truth  was  that  he  simply  imported 
the  matrices. 

At  this  time  everything  served  for  the  decoration  of 
the  Book  :  portraits, 
blazons,  topographi- 
cal plates,  costumes, 
and  emblems.  Small 
portraits  engraved  on 
wood  usually  orna- 
mented the  works  of 
the  poets,  like  that 
of  Nicholas  Bourbon, 
for  example,  marvel 
of  truth  and  skill. 
The  blocks  of  frontis- 
pieces in  the  folios 
were  multiplied;  large 
initial  letters,  inge- 
niously engraved  and 
stippled,  like  that  at 
the  commencement 
of  this  chapter,  were 

used.  Jacques  Kerver  reproduced  in  1545  for  himself, 
and  with  plates  made  for  him,  the  famous  Songe  de 
Poliphile,  published  by  Aldus  in  1499.  The  widow  of 
the  publisher  Denis  Janot,  Jeanne  de  Marnef,  pub- 
lished one  of  the  most  delightful  books  of  the  time, 
L Amour  de  Cupidon  et  de  Psyche  of  Apuleius,  with 
delicious    figures    in    wood    after    Italian    engravings. 


Fig.  55. — Portrait  of  Nicholas  Bourbon. 
Wood  engraving  of  the  commencement  of 
the  sixteenth  century. 


124 


THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 


Many  more  could  be  named  in  the  extraordinary  pro- 
fusion of  charming  books. 

Without  entering  into  detail,  something  must  be  said 
of  Lyons,  then  a  most  extensive  and  prosperous  centre 
of  bookselling.  Lyons  had  the  signal  honour  of  pub- 
lishing first  in  France  the  celebrated  cuts  of  the  "Dance 

of  Death  "  of  Hol- 
bein, the  Basle 
painter.  Doubtless 
Treschel,  the 
printer,  was  not 
the  first,  as  a  copy 
of  a  German  edition 
is  known,  because 
in  the  Lyons  edition 
the  cuts  are  worn 
and  broken.  How- 
ever, the  Cabinet 
d'Estampes  of  Paris 
has  some  of  the 
figures  of  the  Dance 
with  a  German  text, 
probably  printed  by 
Froben  at  Basle. 
Treschel's  title  was 
Les  Siinidachres  et  Historiecs  Faces  de  la  Mort  autant 
clcgamment  poiirtraictes  que  artificiellcmcnt  imaginccs, 
and  the  volume  in  quarto  was  printed  by  Frelon.  The 
Iconcs  veteris  tcstamoiti,  which  preceded  the  publication 
of  the  "  Dance  of  Death,"  had  also  been  printed  at 
Basle  before  Lyons. 

With  Holbein,  as  with  Geoftroy  Tory,  we  arrive  at  the 


56. — King  and  Death.     Vignette  from 
the  "  Dance  of  Death  "  by  Holbein. 


THE   SCHOOL   OF    BASLE.  I25 

zenith  of  illustration  and  marvellous  skill  of  the  engraver. 
If  we  were  to  institute  comparisons,  it  was  Hans  Lutzel- 
burger  who  cut  the  blocks  after  the  designs  of  the  Basle 
master,  but,  contrary  to  what  generally  happens,  the 
translator  reaches  almost  to  the  height  of  his  model ; 
the  line  is  perfection  itself,  it  is  precise  and  intelligent, 
simple,  and,  above  all,  explicit.  If  the  work  of  Lut- 
zelburger  be  admitted,  it  must  also  be  admitted  that 
Holbein  designed  his  cuts  before  1526,  date  of  the  death 
of  the  Basle  engraver;  but  it  was  precisely  before  1526 
that  Holbein  lived  in  Basle,  and  it  was  after  he  had 
travelled.  We  will  add  nothing  to  the  universal  praise 
of  the  book  of  Treschel,  of  Lyons  ;  everything  has  been 
written  of  Holbein,  and  repetitions  are  unnecessary.  We 
would  ask  the  reader  to  compare  the  Francis  I.  of  Tory 
and  the  King  in  Holbein's  "  Dance  of  Death  ; "  there 
is  a  certain  family  resemblance  between  the  two  cuts, 
which  is  a  singular  honour  for  Tory. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  century  Basle  had  a 
school  of  Formschneidcrs  working  for  export.  Besides 
the  numerous  products  used  at  Lyons,  it  had  also  a 
trade  in  wood  blocks,  which,  having  been  used,  were 
afterwards  sold.  Among  these  exchanges  of  engrav- 
ings were  many  plates  of  Brandt's  "  Ship  of  Fools," 
sold  in  1520  to  Galliot  du  Pre,  publisher,  of  Paris,  who 
used  them  in  the  Eloge  dc  la  Folic  of  Erasmus. 

The  reign  of  Francis  I.  saw  a  great  advance  in  the 
national  art  of  illustration.  The  arrival  at  the  court  of 
Italian  artists  of  the  decadence,  such  as  Rosso  and  Prima- 
ticcio,  produced  a  revolution  in  taste.  The  exaggerated 
slightness  of  the  figures  brought  by  these  artists  from 
beyond   the  Alps  was  considered  as  of  supreme  dis- 


126  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

tinction  ;  in  their  twisted  draperies  and  mannered  poses 
was  seen  a  precious  beauty  that  tempted  the  ready 
intelligence  of  the  court  of  France.  The  simple  and 
ingenuous  figures  of  the  old  French  artists  were  ranked 
among  the  refuse  of  another  age,  and  their  compositions 
were  regarded  with  contempt,  and  deemed  antique. 

The  rage  for  emblems  and  for  allegories  and  my- 
thological figures  generally  Avas  well  suited  to  these 
eccentric  and  bizarre  inventions.  From  another  side, 
an  entire  class  of  artists  or  artisans,  book  illustrators 
first,  then  enamellers  and  jewellers,  made  use  of  these 
Italian  models,  with  which  the  King  encumbered  his 
galleries,  and  which,  at  great  expense,  covered  the  walls 
of  Fontainebleau.  One  can  understand  what  these 
skilful  men  made  of  such  a  movement  and  of  so  thought- 
less an  infatuation.  The  publishers  saw  the  demand, 
and  composed  works  of  which  the  sale  was  assured 
by  the  subjects  that  they  furnished  to  other  designers. 
This  explains  the  quantity  of  Alciati's  "  Emblems  "  and 
Ovid's  "  Metamorphoses  "  published  at  Lyons  and  Paris, 
and  copied  and  recopied  a  hundred  times  by  the  art  in- 
dustries of  the  time.  Without  it  the  enormous  success 
of  mediocre  productions,  as  the  "  Emblems,"  for  example, 
in  which  the  meaning  of  the  enigma  or  rebus  cannot 
always  be  seized,  is  ill  understood.  It  was  Alciati  who 
made  this  literature  the  fashion.  He  was  a  sort  of 
Epicurean  and  miserly  jurisconsult,  who  had  as  many 
lords  and  masters  on  earth,  as  the  kings  and  princes 
who  liked  to  bid  against  each  other  to  engage  him. 
He  had  quitted  Italy,  seduced  b}'  the  offers  of 
Francis  I.,  but  when  Sforza  paid  him  a  larger  sum,  he 
returned,  giving  as  reason  for  his  vacillation  that  the 


Fig.  57. — Page  of  the  "  Metamorphoses  "J  of  Ovid,   by  Petit  Bernard. 
Edition  of  1564. 


128  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

sun  had  to  travel  the  earth  and  warm  it  by  its  rays  ; 
this  was  an  emblematic  answer,  for  his  emblems  had 
all  the  coarse,  sceptical  humour  which  not  a  few  had 
then  already  discovered.  At  most  these  philosophical 
aphorisms,  if  we  take  them  seriously,  have  their  droll  side 
in  that  their  author  often  practised  the  reverse  of  his 
teaching.  A  miser,  he  abuses  the  avaricious  ;  flying  his 
country  for  the  love  of  gain,  he  blames  those  to  whom 
"  a  better  condition  is  offered  by  strangers."  Yet  he  is 
sometimes  logical  and  consistent,  as  when  he  assures 
us  that  "  poverty  hinders  the  success  of  intelligence," 
and  when,  finally,  lover  of  good  cheer,  he  died  of 
indigestion  in    1550. 

His  book  of  "  Emblems  "  had  a  vogue  that  lasted  until 
the  seventeenth  century,  and  repetitions  were  infinitely 
multiplied:  at  Paris  by  Wechel  in  1534;  at  Lyons  by 
Hans  de  Tornes,  of  Suabia,  one  of  the  greatest  Lyons 
publishers  ;  by  Roville,  also  one  of  the  first  Lyons  pub- 
lishers, and  by  Bonhomme  ;  at  Venice  by  the  Alduses ; 
in  fact,  everywhere,  translated  into  French,  Spanish, 
and  Italian. 

Bernard  Salomon,  called  Ic  Petit  Bernard,  born  at 
Lyons,  was  one  of  the  designers  of  the  school  of 
Fontainebleau — that  is  to  say,  of  the  Franco-Italian 
school  of  which  we  have  spoken  above — who  furnished 
many  of  the  engravings  for  books  printed  at  Lyons. 
He  illustrated  the  edition  of  Alciati's  "Emblems"  pub- 
lished by  Bonhomme  in  1560;  and  designed  skilful 
little  plates,  which,  with  the  text,  were  surrounded  by 
a  border  from  the  workshop  of  Geoffroy  Tory,  for 
Ovid's  "  Metamorphoses,"  published  by  Hans  de  Tornes 
in    1564.      Bernard    had    all    the    defects  and   all    the 


CORNELIS   DE   LA   HAVE.  1 29 

qualities  of  those  of  his  time,  from  John  Cousin  to  the 
least  of  them  ;  he  was  a  Primaticcio  on  a  small  scale, 


Fig.  58. — Portraits  of  Madeleine,  Queen  of  Scotland,  and  of 
Marguerite,  Duchess  of  Savoy,  after  the  originals  of  Cornelis  of 
Lyons. 

but  agreeably  so.     His  designs  for  the  New  Testament 
were  also  very  careful,   but  in    them  more  than  else- 


Fig.  59. — Portraits  of  Francis,  dauphin,  and  of  Charles,  Duke  of 
Angouleme,  after  the  originals  of  Cornelis  of  Lj^ons.  Woodcuts 
taken  from  Roville's  Proniptitaire  des  Mcdaillcs. 

where  the  manner  and  the  affectation  of  the  school  of 
Fontainebleau  are  apparent. 

The  workshops  of  the  second  city  of  France,  we  see, 

9 


130  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

had  at  this  time  attained  considerable  importance  ;  but 
before  the  books  of  which  we  shall  speak,  Roville 
published  two  anon3^mous  books,  one  LEntrcc  du 
Rot  Henri  11.  a  Lyon,  in  1549,  ornamented  with 
very  graceful  woodcuts,  the  other  the  Promptuairc  dcs 
Me'daillcs,  comprising  a  series  of  charming  portraits 
under  the  pretence  of  reproductions  from  the  antique. 
The  designs  of  the  Entree  are  often  attributed  to  John 
Cousin,  as  it  is  a  rule  with  certain  amateurs  to  give  a 
known  name  to  a  work  ;  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  Lyons  then  had  celebrated  artists,  Petit-Bernard, 
alluded  to  above,  and  Cornells  de  la  Haye,  of  whom 
we  have  more  to  say  ;  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  to 
Paris  or  to  Rome  to  find  the  author  of  these  illustra- 
tions. 

Cornells  de  la  Haye  was  a  painter  who  executed 
nearly  the  same  work  as  Francis  Clouet  in  Paris, 
portraits  on  panel,  in  a  clear  and  harmonious  tone, 
then  much  the  fashion.  During  a  journey  of  the  King, 
he  had,  if  Brantome  may  be  credited,  portrayed  the 
entire  court,  keeping  the  sketches  for  himself.  Ten 
or  fifteen  years  after,  Catherine  de  Medicis,  passing 
through  Lyons,  saw  these  portraits  and  highly  praised 
them,  recognising  the  old  costumes,  astonished  at  the 
courtiers  of  the  day,  whom  she  had  never  seen  in  such 
dress.  This  artist  is  now  known,  thanks  to  various 
works  that  have  been  found,  among  others  two 
portraits  of  the  sons  of  Francis  L,  preserved  by 
Gaignieres,  who  attributed  them  resolutely  to  Cornells, 
doubtless  on  the  faith  of  inscriptions  that  have  disap- 
peared. Both  of  them  were  engraved  on  wood  at 
Lyons  and  published  in  Roville's  book  the  Promptuaire 


THE    "  PROMPTUAIRE    DES    MEDAILLES. 


131 


aes  Mc'daillcs,  mentioned  above,  with  small  differences 
of  detail  altogether  insignificant.  It  is  not  impossible 
then  that  Cornelis  designed  these  portraits,  and  that 
they  were  drawn   on  wood    after   the   cabinet  models 


Fig.  60. — Captain  of  foot  from  the  Entree  de  Henri  11.  a  Lyon  (1549). 

spoken  of  by  Brantome.  The  delicate  figures  of  the 
Promptnaire  are  the  work  of  a  master ;  and  the  differ- 
ences mentioned  are  those  of  the  artist,  not  of  the 
copyist,  who  would  not  be  permitted  to  change  any- 
thing.     It  is  the  first  time,  we  believe,  that  these  com- 


132  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

parisons  have  been  made ;  they  will  perhaps  help  the 
learned  Lyonnais  to  pierce  the  mystery,  but  in  any 
case  our  suppositions  are  more  honourable  to  Cornells 
de  la  Haye  than  the  fancies  of  Robert  Dumesnil 
{Peiiitre-graveur  Francois,  tome  vi.,  p.  343).  To 
judge  by  the  four  little  medallions  here  reproduced, 
the  art  of  engraving  on  wood  was  rarely  more  skilful 
than  in  these  portraits.  It  would  not  be  astonishing  if 
a  man  like  Cornells  had  designed  the  figures  of  the 
Entree  de  Henri  II.  In  any  case,  why  should  we  choose 
John  Cousin  instead  of  Petit-Bernard  ?  At  this  time, 
we  know,  the  kings  carried  in  their  suite  their  ordinary 
painters ;  but  we  do  not  know  that  John  Cousin 
followed  the  court  to  Lyons  in  1549..  He  did  not  hold 
an  official  position,  like  Clouet. 

This  artist  produced  well-authenticated  works ;  one 
of  them  is  signed,  and  leaves  no  doubt :  the  Livre  de 
Perspective  de  Jehan  Cousin  Senonois,  Maistrc  Painctre, 
published  in  1560  by  Jean  le  Royer,  printer  to  the 
King  for  mathematics.  This  profession  of  printer  for 
mathematics  had  its  difficulties  of  engraving,  for  Le 
Royer  tells  us  in  his  preface  that  he  had  himself 
finished  the  plates  commenced  by  Albin  Olivier.  In 
another  practical  treatise,  entitled  Z/wt^  de  Portraiture, 
published  in  1593,  John  Cousin  is  styled  peintre 
gconictricu.  It  is  beyond  doubt  that  this  master 
produced  for  many  works  figures  and  ornaments, 
but  what  were  the  books  ?  The  manner  was  then  to 
repeat  the  engraved  borders  of  titles,  the  passc-partojtt, 
in  the  centre  of  which  the  text  was  printed.  Cousin 
designed  many  of  these  title-pages  on  wood ;  that 
of  the  livre  d?  Portraiture  affords  a   curious  element 


00 


ENGRAVED   TITLE-PAGES, 
of  comparison  ;  but  he  was  not  by  any  means  the  in- 


ventor.    In    1555   was  sold  at  Antwerp  a  book  printed 
from  engraved  plates  after  John  Vriedman,  by  Gerard 


134  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

Juif,  which  is  simply  a  collection  of  engravings  for 
title-pages  for  the  use  of  publishers. 

It  is  about  this  time  that  metal  plates  may  be  seen  in 
conjunction  with  wood  engraving  in  the  illustration  of 
the  Book,  and  the  best  artists  attached  their  names  to 
important  publications  of  this  kind.  We  have  explained 
in  a  former  chapter  in  what  this  process  is  least  con- 
venient in  the  impression  of  a  book.  In  fact,  two  succes- 
sive printings,  that  of  the  plates  and  that  of  the  text, 
were  additional  trouble  and  a  frequent  cause  of  errors  ; 
but  wood-cutting  was  somewhat  abandoned  in  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  especially  for  separate 
plates,  and  engraved  plates  took  a  considerable  import- 
ance under  different  artistic  influences.  The  first  was 
the  facility  of  engraving  a  metal  plate  compared  to  the 
difficulty  of  cutting  a  wood  block.  It  thus  naturally 
happened  that  the  artists  of  the  burin  wished  to  employ 
their  art  in  illustration,  and  taste  was  soon  drawn  to 
the  new  process. 

In  France  the  first  volume  of  this  kind  was  printed  in 
1488  by  Topie  de  Pymont  in  folio  :  the  Peregrinations 
en  Tcrrc  Sointe  of  Bernard  de  Breydenbach,  with  figures 
on  engraved  plates  copied  from  the  Mayence  edition  of 
i486.  Since  this  manner  was  abandoned  until  about 
1550,  as  much  for  the  reasons  given  above  as  for  others, 
we  only  meet  with  a  stra}'  plate  now  and  again,  which 
remains  as  a  bait,  and  relates  to  nothing.  Under 
the  reign  of  Henri  II.  the  smallness  of  the  volumes 
did  not  always  admit  of  wood  engravings,  and  the 
artists  in  metal  found  a  footing  among  illustrators ; 
they  made  attempts,  such  as  that  of  the  Histoire  de 
Jason  of  Rene  Boivin  in   1563,  which  came  out  under 


p.    WOERIOT — BOOKS    WITH    PLATES.  I  35 

Charles  IX.  in  a  charming  volume  of  engraved  plates 
by  P.  Woeriot. 

The  "  Emblems "  of  Georgette  de  Montenay  were 
also  in  the  burlesque  style  of  Alciati,  but  they  had 
an  advantage,  as  the  author  assures  us  : — 

"Alciat  fist  des  emblemes  exquis, 
Lesquels,  voyant  de  plusieurs  requis, 
Desir  me  prist  de  commencer  les  miens, 
Lesquels  je  croy  estre  premiers  chrestiens."" 

This  orthodoxy  does  not  make  them  more  intelligible, 
but  the  engravings  of  Woeriot,  unskilful  as  they  are, 
import  an  element  of  interest  which  surpasses  the  rest. 
It  was  always  at  Lyons,  the  rival  and  often  the  master 
of  Paris  in  typography,  that  the  author  printed  his 
work. 

By  the  privilege  dated  1566,  five  years  before  publi- 
cation, we  see  that  it  is  permitted  to  Peter  Woeriot, 
engraver  of  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  to  portray,  engrave, 
and  cut  in  copper  the  said  figures  called  emblems  for 
the  time  and  term  of  five  years  (i8th  October,  1566). 
Peter  Woeriot  sometimes  signed  his  prints  with  the 
small  Lorraine  cross  adopted  by  Geoffroy  Tory's  work- 
shop, as  may  be  seen  in  our  engraving. 

Copper  plate  engraving  had  by  this  time  established 
itself,  and  the  works  that  were  so  illustrated  spread 
themselves.  Du  Cerceau  published  his  admirable 
collection  of  Plus  Beaux  Bastiments  dc  France  in 
folio  1576-79,  which  had  numerous  plans  and  views  of 
the  royal  and  princely  castles.  Thevet  put  forth  his 
Cosmographie  Universelle  and  his  Houimcs  Illustres^  the 
latter  adorned  with  skilfully  engraved  portraits.  In 
Paris  the  publishers  Mamert  Patisson,  who  married  the 


136 


THE    TRINTED   BOOK. 


widow  of  Robert  Estienne  and  took  his  mark,  Adrien 
le  Roy,  and  Robert  Ballard,  published  the  celebrated 
Ballet  Comique  de  la  Royne  Faid  aitx  Nopces  dc  Monsieur 
le  Due  dejoyeuse,  composed  by  Balthasar  de  Beaujoyeux, 
valet  de  chambre  to  Henri  III,;    and  in  this  book,  in 


^£r^5|^^^VNDABlT^-l  N  iqvi  T  AS-^ 


RiCEScr.T    CHAHlTAy 


Fig.  62. — Engraving  by  P.  Woeriot  for  Georgette 
de  Montenay's  Emblhnes. 


which  were  put  hasty  etchings,  the  King  displayed  all 
his  immodesty  and  depravity.  The  Book  has  often  had 
the  unconscious  mission  of  transmitting  to  posterity 
the  unworthiness  of  its  author  or  of  its  heroes.  From 
this  time  the  Book  has  left  its  golden  age  to  enter  into 
the  boastings  of  courtiers  and  political  abstractions. 


THE   PORTRAIT    IN   THE   BOOK.  1 37 

Among  the  publications  opposed  to  the  Government 
of  the  time,  the  two  associates  James  Tortorel  and 
John  Perrissin,  of  Lyons,  had  pubhshed  a  celebrated 
collection  of  plates  on  the  religious  wars  that  stained 
the  reign  of  Charles  IX.  with  blood.  At  first  engraved 
on  metal,  these  plates  were  worn  out,  and  were  gradually 
replaced  by  others  engraved  on  wood,  on  which  several 
artists  worked,  among  them  James  le  Challeux  and 
also  John  de  Gourmont,  one  of  the  most  celebrated 
wood-cutters  of  the  sixteenth  century.  This  was  a 
work  composed  of  single  leaves  in  folio  size,  which 
had  an  extraordinary  sale  among  the  religious  people 
of  the  time. 

At  the  same  time,  illustration  on  wood  did  not  stand 
still.  The  portraits  of  authors  diffused  by  the  pencil  of 
Clouet  and  his  school  were  commonly  put  at  the  head 
of  their  works.  We  cannot  say  whether  Clouet  himself 
designed  the  portraits  of  Tiraqueau  and  of  Taillemont  in 
1553;  of  Du  Billon,  the  author  of  the  Fort  Inexpugnable, 
in  1555;  Papon  and  Ambroise  Pare  in  1561  ;  Grevin, 
Ramus,  and  others  ;  but  the  precision  of  these  physiog- 
nomies recalls  the  peculiar  manner  of  the  French  artists 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  "  Poems  "  of  Ronsard 
in  1586  contains  a  series  of  very  clever  portraits, 
among  them  that  of  Muret,  his  commentator,  one  of  the 
most  perfect  of  its  kind.  Christopher  de  Savigny,  author 
of  the  Tableaux  Accomplis  de  Tons  les  Arts  Liberaux, 
published  by  John  and  Francis  de  Gourmont  in  1587, 
is  represented  at  full  length  in  the  frontispiece  of  his 
work,  offering  the  book  to  the  Due  de  Nevers,  to 
whom  it  is  dedicated.  This  plate  in  folio,  probably  en- 
graved by  John  de  Gourmont,  is  the  best  finished  that 


138  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

we  have  seen.  The  work  of"  Savigny,  forgotten  as  it 
may  be  now,  had  a  great  reputation  in  its  own  time  ; 
and  Bacon  took  from  it  the  idea  of  his  "Advancement 
of  Learning." 

Speaking  of  the  Due  de  Nevers,  it  will  not  be  with- 
out interest  to  our  readers  to  mention  here  a  manu- 
script found  by  us  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale,  which 
enables  us  to  give  an  account  of  the  work  then  necessary 
for  the  publication  of  an  illustrated  book.  In  1577  the 
Duke  arranged  for  the  impression  of  an  apologetic  book, 
of  which  no  trace  remains  ;  and  his  intendant  writes  a 
long  letter  to  him  on  the  subject  of  composition  and 
bindings.  It  was  necessary  that  the  work  should  be 
produced  quickly,  bound  and  gilt,  for  presents.  The 
intendant  thinks  calf  will  be  the  most  expeditious 
covering.  "  It  would  be  much  the  best  to  use  black  or 
red  calf,  .  .  .  well  gilt  above,  and  not  vellum,  which  is 
a  thin  parchment  that  quickly  shrinks."  The  state- 
ments of  this  man  of  business  show  that  five  proofs  ol 
each  sheet  were  taken  for  typographical  correction,  and 
that  twelve  full  days  were  wanted  for  the  binding.  The 
most  interesting  part  of  this  memoir  is  that  which 
treats  of  the  engraving  on  wood  of  the  portrait.  The 
plate  was  designed  by  an  artist  who  had  afterwards 
gone  away  ;  it  was  not  satisfactory,  but  the  ornaments 
would  pass.  The  intendant  proposes  to  "fix  a  little 
piece  of  wood  in  the  block  that  could  be  drawn  upon." 
Here  we  see  correction  by  elimination.  The  pear-wood 
on  which  the  original  figure  was  engraved  was  to  be 
cut  out,  and  a  square  of  boxwood  substituted,  "  foras- 
much as  in  this  task  the  pear-wood,  which  is  the 
successful,  well-cut  block,  is  the  wood  that  is  harder." 


ILLUSTRATION    IN    1 577. 


139 


The  portrait  of  the  Duchesse  de  Nevers  was  better,  yet 
the  pear- wood  had  given  way  under  the  work.      "  That 

Ihanttit    'Wt^'jt  Jeett. 


*''Pmctj    cGim  patcris ,  Fiantine ,  tuosque    dbcrres 
^jTEtemum    ceterrmm  Jama    Coquctiir  anus. 
^  J^  {auifare  opus    Inviaxa:    tu    tunacris    c^fiiL 
lUi^lres   tantum    tundit  at  ijie  vtroj  . 

Fig.  63. — Portrait  of  Christopher  Plantin,  printer  of  Antwerp. 
Engraved  by  Wierix. 

of  Madame  is  more  passable.     Nevertheless,  there  is  still 
something  to  say  to  one  eye.    The  wood  cannot  carry  the 


140  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

subtlety  of  the  line."  Here,  in  a  few  clear  and  explicit 
lines  by  a  man  of  the  time,  we  see  the  economy  of  a 
publication  of  the  sixteenth  century,  at  a  time  when 
wood  engraving  was  declining,  to  give  place  to  engraving 
on  metal,  which  was  soon  to  reign  supreme,  through 
the  most  important  book  house  of  the  century :  the 
Plantins  of  Antwerp. 

^  Christopher  Plantin,  like  Jenson,  came  originally 
from  Tours,  After  having  learned  his  art  with  Mace  at 
Caen,  he  went  to  Paris,  from  which  the  wars  soon 
drove  him.  He  left  for  the  Low  Countries,  and  there 
PhiHp  II.  nominated  him  as  chief  printer — "  architypo- 
graphus."  Established  at  Antwerp  in  ISSS,  he  sur- 
rounded himself,  as  had  the  Estiennes  and  Alduses, 
with  most  of  the  learned  and  literary  men  of  his  time, 
among  them  Justus  Lipsius,  to  whom  Balzac  attributed 
the  Latin  prefaces  signed  by  Plantin.  It  is  certain  that 
he  was  neither  an  Estienne  nor  an  Aldus.  His  artistic 
probity  caused  him  to  submit  the  proofs  of  his  works  to 
strangers,  with  promise  of  recompense  for  faults  indi- 
cated ;  the  Estiennes  employed  the  same  system. 
Plantin,  not  to  be  behind  any  of  his  contemporaries  in 
typographical  perfection,  brought  from  France  the 
celebrated  type-founder  William  Lebe,  and  charged 
him  to  furnish  a  special  fount.*     Under  the  orders  of 

*  In  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale  is  a  copy  of  an  octavo  AUniDi  de 
Caractcres,  in  which  Lebe  has  written,  "  This  gloss,  made  in  Paris 
(1574)  by  me,  is  my  fourteenth  letter,  and  the  text  is  made  on  the  pattern 
of  the  preceding  one  for  size,  but  of  a  better  art  ;  and  from  this  was 
printed  the  great  Bible  of  Antwerp  by  Plantin,  to  whom  I  sold  a 
fount "'  (folio  6).  On  folio  20  he  wrote.  "  I  do  not  know  whence  came 
this  small  Hebrew  that  I  received  from  Plantin  to  make  a  smaller  one 
for  him.  He  sent  me  this  half-sheet,  and  I  have  not  seen  at  Venice 
another  part." 


CHRISTOPHER   PLANTIN. 


141 


Philip  II.,  he  printed  the  celebrated  Polyglot  Bible,  in  V 
eight  folio  volumes,  absolutely  perfect  in  its  execution  ; 
unfortunately  the  Spanish  Government,  having  ad- 
vanced funds  in  the  course  of  publication,  prosecuted 
him  with  the  utmost  rigour  to  obtain  repayment.  This 
very  nearly  shut  up  his  printing  house,  but  he  took 
courage  and  over- 
came his  difficulties, 
until  he  became,  in 
1589,  the  year  of 
his  death,  the  prin- 
cipal publisher  of 
Flanders.  His 
mark  was  a  hand 
holding  a  compass, 
with  the  motto  "La- 
bore  et  constantia." 
Plantin  died  at 
the  age  of  seventy- 
four,  leaving  a 
prosperous  busi- 
ness to  be  divided 
between  his  three 
daughters.  His 
first  house  at  Ant- 
werp     employed 

seventeen  presses  even  at  the  time  when  he  was  in 
trouble,  and  he  had  branches  at  Paris  and  Leyden,  of  less 
consequence.  His  second  daughter  married  Moretus, 
and  to  him  descended  the  Antwerp  workshop ;  he  and 
his  descendants  continued  the  printing  house  until 
recently  ;  the  house  of  the  great  printer  and  publisher 


Fig.  64.  — Plantin's  mark. 


142  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

is  now  a  typographical  museum.  The  Piantin  printing 
office — "Officina  Plantiniana" — was  as  well  managed  by 
its  descendants  as  b}^  himself.  The  fashion  of  engraving 
in  metal  spread  itself  before  the  death  of  t*he  head  of 
the  house,  and  his  successors  continued  it.  The  prin- 
cipal engravers  with  the  burin  of  the  Low  Countries 
were  employed  by  them  :  Wierix,  Galle,  Pass,  Mallery, 
Van  Sichem  ;  it  was  a  real  school  of  illustration,  that 
created  by  degrees  a  precious  and  sustained  style,  not 
without  influence  on  the  artists  of  that  epoch.  It 
Vv^as  from  this  particular  manner  that  came  Thomas  de 
Leu  and  Leonard  Gaultier  in  France;  and  from  Antwerp 
came  those  small  religious  figures  that  have  lasted  to 
our  time  in  their  incomprehensible  mysticism. 

The  title-pages  of  the  Piantin  printing  office  in- 
augurated the  passe-partoul  engraved  by  the  burin, 
overloaded  and  complicated,  of  which  the  seventeenth 
century  took  advantage.  To  tell  the  truth,  these  elaborate 
displays,  blackened  by  ink,  do  not  accord  well  with 
the  titles  ;  and  there  is  a  long  distance  between  this 
decadence  and  the  books  ornamented  with  wood  blocks 
b}^  the  Italians  and  French  of  the  commencement  of  the 
century.  Exception  must  be  made  in  favour  of  Rubens, 
who  designed  many  of  these  titles.  The  heavy  and 
squat  architecture  of  the  time  was  least  of  all  appropriate 
to  these  decorations,  which  wanted  grace.  It  passed 
from  Piantin  into  France  through  the  engravers  ;  it  went 
to  Rome  with  Martin  de  Vos  and  John  Sadeler  ;  it  im- 
posed itself  everywhere ;  and  from  that  day  to  this  it 
has  not  ceased.  At  the  time  of  which  we  write  it  had 
taken  its  flight  in  France,  and  spread  itself  in  Europe 
with  extraordinary  success.     Engraving  in  relief,  hold- 


Fig.  65.— Frontispiece  of  a  book  from  Plantin's  printing  office. 
Metal  engraving. 


144  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

ing  its  own  until  then,  gave  way  little  by  little  before 
this  invasion.  When  Henri  IV.  mounted  the  throne 
wood  engraving  had  finished  its  upward  movement,  it 
still  remained  in  the  canards,  or  popular  pieces  sold 
at  low  prices,  but  it  is  easy  to  see  what  these  hasty 
vignettes  are  worth. 

We  have  now  seen  the  history  of  the  Book  and  its 
decoration  in  the  sixteenth  century  in  France  :  at  first 
French  epics  in  Italy,  books  of  hours,  romances  of 
chivalry;  then  about  1550,  with  the  reign  of  Henri  II., 
the  religious  pamphlets  commenced,  bookselling  spread 
itself;  the  strife  between  illustrations  on  metal  plates 
and  those  in  relief  assumed  shape,  it  continued  under 
Henri  III.,  and  terminated  abruptly  by  the  victory  of 
the  first  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  century.  With 
political  passions,  printing  had  become  a  weapon  of 
warfare,  which  it  will  never  cease  to  be.  They  knew 
in  the  sixteenth  century  what  perfidious  accusations 
or  excessive  praises  were  worth.  The  Book  followed 
the  fate  of  its  author.  If  the  writer  was  burned,  so  was 
his  book.  Witness  the  Clinstianisiiii  Restitutio  of  the 
Catholic  Servetus,  printed  at  Vienne,  in  Dauphine,  and 
consigned  to  the  flames  with  its  author  at  Geneva  in  1 5  5  3. 
A  single  copy  was  saved  from  the  fire,  and  is  now  pre- 
served in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale  ;  it  is  the  identical 
copy  annotated  by  Colladon,  the  accuser  of  the  unhappy 
Servetus,  and  still  bears  traces  of  fire  on  its  leaves. 

Typography  and  the  illustration  of  the  Book  in 
England  in  the  sixteenth  century  did  not  make  the 
same  progress  as  in  France  and  Italy.  Much  good 
work  was  done,  but  it  was  mostly  with  foreign  material. 
Type  was  obtained  from   French  and  Dutch  founders, 


Fig.  66. — Portrait  of  Queen  Elizabeth  from  the  "  Rook  of  Cliristian 
Praiers,''  printed  by  John  Day,  157S. 

10 


146  THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 

and  most  of  the  woodcuts  had  the  same  origin.  In 
the  early  part  of  the  century  most  of  the  publications 
were  translations  of  popular  foreign  books,  such  as 
Voragine's  "  Golden  Legend,"  Caxton's  translations  ot 
Cicero,  Boetius,  etc.  Too  many  restrictions  and  privi- 
leges obtained  to  encourage  or  allow  of  the  establish- 
ment of  an  English  school,  which  was  to  come  later 
with  the  spread  of  wealth  and  education.  Books  were 
mostly  printed  in  Gothic  type,  or  "black  letter,"  and 
the  woodcuts  were  of  the  coarsest  kind.  An  exception 
was  the  beautiful  Prayer-book  of  John  Day,  1578, 
known  as  Queen  Elizabeth's  Prayer-book,  from  the 
fine  portrait  of  the  Queen,  which  we  reproduce,  on 
the  previous  page ;  but  in  this  the  woodcuts  were 
designed  by  Albert  Dtirer  and  Hans  Holbein.  Pynson 
was  the  first  to  use  Roman  type  in  England,  in  the 
Oratio  in  pace  nupcrrimd,  15 18,  quarto;  and  the  first 
English  Bible  in  Roman  type  was  printed  at  Edinburgh 
in  1576.  It  is  thought  that  until  about  1600  printers 
were  their  own  type-founders,  as  no  record  exists  of 
founding  as  a  separate  trade  until  that  time. 

The  greatest  achievement  of  the  sixteenth  century 
in  England  was  the  printing  of  the  first  English  Bible, 
in  Coverdale's  translation,  in  1535,  folio,  but  even  this 
was  printed  abroad,  the  latest  investigation  giving  it  to 
Van  Meteren  at  Antwerp.  The  woodcuts  in  it  are  by 
Hans  Sebald  Beham  ;  we  reproduce  one  representing 
Cain  killing  Abel.  Tyndall  had  previously  printed 
abroad  an  English  New  Testament.  Another  importa- 
tion was  Brandt's  "Shyp  of  Folys,"  printed  by  Pynson, 
1509,  and  John  Cawood,  1570,  the  woodcuts  in  both 
being  copied  from  the  originals  before  referred  to. 


ENGLISH   BOOKS   OF   THE    i6th   CENTURY.       I47 

Folio  was  the  size  usually  adopted,  and  in  this  size 
the  series  of  chronicles  appeared  :  Arnold,  printed 
abroad  in  1502;  Fabian,  in  15 16;  Froissart,  by 
Pynson,  in  two  volumes,  1523-5;  Harding,  by  Grafton, 
1543;  Hall,  by  the  same,  1548;  Holinshed,  in  two 
volumes,  1577.  In  the  same  size  Chaucer  was  first 
given  to  the  world  entire  by  T.  Godfrey  in  1532,  and 
many  times  reprinted,  and  Sir  Thomas  More  in    1557. 


Fig.  67. — Woodcut  from  Coverdales  Bible,  1535. 
Cain  killing  Abel. 

Polemical  and  religious  treatises  were  mostly  printed 
in  quarto,  as  were  the  poets  :  Spenser's  Faerie  Oueene, 
in  1590;  Langland's  Pierce  Plowman,  in  1550;  and 
Sidney's  Arcadia^  in  1590.  Plays  were  also  printed  in 
quarto,  in  which  shape  at  the  end  of  the  century  some 
of  Shakespeare's  single  plays  were  issued. 

From  the  great  perfection  to  which  the  liturgies,  or 
books  of  hours,  had  been  brought  by  Vostre,  Verard, 
and  others  in   France,  it  is  not  perhaps  extraordinary 


148  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

that  the  service  books  for  Enghsh  use  should  have 
been  mostly  printed  abroad.  Those  for  Salisbury  and 
York  were  produced  at  Paris,  Rouen,  and  Antwerp. 
A  Salisbury  Primer  in  English  was  printed  by  John 
Kyngston  and  Henry  Sutton  in  1557,  and  Wynken 
de  Worde  printed  a  York  Manual  in  1509.  The  first 
English  Common  Prayer  Book,  known  as  Edward  VI. 's, 
was  printed  by  Grafton  in  1549,  who  also  printed  in 
1545  Henry  VII I. 's  Primer  in  Latin  and  English. 
Edward's  book  is  curious  as  having  on  the  last  page 
a  royal  order  as  to  the  price  at  which  it  was  to  be 
sold  :  "  No  maner  of  persone  shall  sell  the  present 
Booke  vnbounde  aboue  the  price  of  two  shillynges  and 
two  pence.  And  bound  in  Forell  for  us.  xd.,  and  not 
aboue.  And  the  same  bound  in  Shepes  Lether  for  iiis. 
iiu/.,  and  not  aboue.  And  the  same  bounde  in  paste 
or  in  boordes,  in  Calues  Lether,  not  aboue  the  price 
of  iiiis.  the  pece."  Cranmer's  Catechism  was  printed 
by  Nicholas  Hill  in  1548,  with  twenty-nine  woodcuts 
by  Hans  Holbein,  one  of  which  we  reproduce,  repre- 
senting Christ  casting  out  devils. 

Translations  from  the  classics  were  popular,  and  in 
the  second  half  of  the  century  arose  that  passion  for 
voyage  and  travel  which  has  so  largely  contributed  to 
the  wealth  and  extension  of  England.  This  was  begun 
by  Eden's  translation  of  Peter  Martyr's  "  Decades  of  the 
New  World;  or,  West  India,"  London,  1555,  quarto, 
followed  by  Hakluyt's  "Principall  Navigations,  Voyages, 
and  Discoveries,"  1589,  folio.  Many  accounts  of  single 
voyages  and  discoveries  were  issued,  and  the  taste 
thus  created  culminated  in  the  establishment  of  the 
East  India  Company  in  the  last  year  of  the  century. 


ENGLISH    BOOKS   OF   THE    i6TH   CENTURY.       I49 

The  first  specimen  of  copper  plate  engraving  for 
books  in  England  is  a  frontispiece  to  Galen's  De 
TcmpcramentiSy  printed  at  Cambridge  1521,  and  the 
number  of  books  containing  copper  plates  engraved 
before  1600  is  extremely  limited,  the  most  notable 
being  portraits  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  Lord  Leicester,  and 
Lord  Burleigh  in  Archbishop  Parker's  Bible  of  1568; 
Saxton's    Atlas,    1579,    the    first    atlas    in    England; 


Fig.  68. — Woodcut  by  Hans  Holbein  from  Cranmer's 
Catechism,   154S. 

Harrington's  translation  of  Ariosto,  1591,  with  forty- 
seven  engraved  plates. 

The  first  printer  at  Cambridge  was  John  Siberch, 
1 521.  Peter  of  Treves  established  himself  at  South- 
wark  in  15 14.  Among  his  productions  is  a  Higden's 
Polychronicon,  iS^y,  folio.  John  Oswen  printed  at 
Ipswich  1538,  and  among  the  English  towns  in  which 
printers  established  themselves  in  the  century  were 
York,  Canterbury,  Tavistock,  Norwich,  and  Worcester. 

The  establishment  of  the  Reformed  Church,  and  the 
diffusion  of  education  among  the  people  which  followed. 


ISO 


THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 


created  an  original  English  school  of  literature  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  this  gave  employment  and  great 
impetus  to  typography  in  England,  so  that  by  the  time 
we  reach  the  end  of  the  century  we  find  a  great  im- 
provement in  the  art  of  the  Book,  to  be  carried  to 
still  greater  perfection  in  the  next. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

1600    TO    1700. 

Tendencies  of  the  regency  of  Marie  de  Medicis — Thomas  de  Leu  and 
Leonard  Gaultier — J.  Picart  and  Claude  Mellan — Lyons  and  J.  de 
Fomazeris — The  Book  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century 
in  Germany,  Italy,  and  Holland — Crispin  Pass  in  France— The 
Elzevirs  and  their  work  in  Holland — Sebastian  Cramoisy  and  the 
Imprimerie  Royale — Illustration  with  Callot,  Delia  Bella,  and  Abra- 
ham Bosse — The  publishers  and  the  Hotel  de  Rambouillet — The 
reign  of  Louis  XIV.,  Antoine  Vitre  syndic  at  his  accession — His 
works  and  mortifications  ;  the  polyglot  Bible  of  Le  Jay — Art  and 
illustrators  of  the  grand  century — Sebastien  Leclerc,  Lepautre,  and 
Chauveau — Leclerc  preparing  the  illustration  and  decoration  of  the 
Book  for  the  eighteenth  century — The  Book  in  England  in  the 
seventeenth  century. 


■"      ■"     "^ 


C.t.^^iBl.--^IK=.itfi,^lu>^ ^.f-^    Vj 


Fig.  69. — Letter  engraved  by 
A.  Bosse. 


of  little  decorative  aspect. 


OW  we  have  arrived  at  a 
critical  epoch,  in  which  the 
science  of  the  old  printers 
transformed  itself  gradu- 
ally into  commerce,  in 
which  taste  lost  itself 
under  the  influence  of  re- 
ligious  architecture. 
The  title  of  the  Book  re- 
presents the  portico  of  a 
cathedral,  with  columns, 
mitred  saints,  and  crosses, 
Figures  on  copper  plates 


152  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

replaced  the  foliage  and  arabesques  of  the  older 
booksellers.  Through  the  Plantins  and  their  imi- 
tators, the  architectural  passion  was  far  spread.  It 
inundated  France,  ran  through  Germany  and  Italy,  and 
reigned  pre-eminent  in  Holland.  Literary  taste  also 
underwent  change ;  manners  were  no  longer  those  of 
the  sixteenth  century  :  bold,  free,  and  gay  ;  from  the 
religious  wars  a  certain  hypocrisy  arose  ;  bombast  re- 
placed the  natural ;  the  gods  were  preparing,  as  a 
contemporary  said,  to  receive  Louis  and  his  spirit. 

It  is  not  that  artists  were  wanting  at  the  opening  of 
the  seventeenth  century  who  could,  in  giving  scope  to 
their  talent,  show  themselves  worthy  successors  of 
those  who  went  before  them.  Unhappily  the  book- 
sellers no  longer  had  a  loose  rein ;  they  had  the 
rope,  for  they  were  hung  or  burned  at  the  least  infrac- 
tion of  political  or  religious  propriety.  Yet  the  reign 
of  Henri  IV.  was  relatively  an  easier  period  for  the 
artisans  of  the  Book,  in  which  they  were  less  confined 
to  the  strict  terms  of  excessive  regulations  ;  but  after 
this  prince  severity  increased,  and  during  the  year 
1626  a  new  law  was  promulgated  punishing  with 
death  the  printers  or  distributers  of  prohibited  books. 
Doubtless  the  books  that  were  thus  secretly  sold,  and 
prohibited  in  defence  of  good  manners,  were  neither 
chcfs-d'ccuvi'c  of  typography  nor  art.  The  author  threw 
off  the  indecencies  by  which  he  hoped  to  make  profit 
and  fame,  regardless  of  type  or  illustration.  But  during 
the  regency  of  Marie  de  Medicis,  it  was  not  only  the 
authors  of  a  bad  standard  that  were  in  danger  of  being 
hung ;  the  printer  or  seller  of  the  pamphlet  or  book  of 
a    reputed   heterodox  author    was    also    hung,    and    it 


-^=" —  —     -^     -  ■ '  *  ccuhrum.      ^^  -^i 


g"^ ' 


["■A-fiURJ-y,  Chsz^FieiTC  ChenaHicr  rue  6.  Lcques  a  limnije  S.Pierr^^ 


Fig.  70. — Title  of   the  Metancalogie,  engraved  by  Leonard  Gaulticr. 


154  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

became  difficult  to  steer  safely  among  the  prohibitions. 
Enormous  numbers  of  works  were  made  with  frontis- 
pieces decorated  with  colonnades  and  mitred  saints, 
and  bearing  high-sounding  titles  of  sound  orthodoxy. 
A  somewhat  gross  mysticism,  from  the  office  of  Plantin, 
formed  the  most  solid  stock  of  every  respectable  dealer. 
Under  Henri  IV.  and  the  minority  of  Louis'  XIII., 
two  French  illustrators  received  from  the  school  of 
Antwerp  their  inspiration  for  the  ornament  of  the  Book. 
Thomas  de  Leu,  probabl}'  from  Flanders,  was  allied 
with  the  old  Parisian  painter  and  engraver  of  celebrated 
portraits,  Antoine  Caron,  in  furnishing  the  engraved 
plates  for  the  Images  de  Plate  Peinture  dcs  Deux  Pliilos- 
f rates,  Sop/i/stes  Grecs,  Paris,  Claude  Cramoisy,  1609, 
folio  ;  and  Leonard  Gaultier,  his  contemporary,  collabo- 
rated with  Jaspar  Isaac  and  other  artists  in  the  Book. 
Leonard  Gaultier  contributed  most  to  spread  in  France 
the  Plantinian  style,  and  his  somewhat  cold  but  charac- 
teristic talent  suited  this  art  more  than  that  of  any  one 
else  then  could.  He  was  an  engraver  of  portraits,  now 
rare  and  valuable,  in  the  style  of  Wierix  or  Thomas  de 
Leu  ;  but,  at  the  demand  of  publishers  and  booksellers, 
he  composed  other  plates,  at  first  historical  figures  re- 
presenting the  royal  famil}'  and  the  nobles  for  the 
publisher  Leclerc,  in  a  simple  and  true  manner ;  he  also 
designed  pious  figures,  recording  a  miracle  or  represent- 
ing the  ceremonies  of  a  jubilee  and  other  devotional 
things.  But  he  made  his  grc^at  success  in  the  composition 
of  frontispieces  to  theological  and  pious  works,  printed 
for  nearly  all  the  booksellers.  Leonard  Gaultier  had  a 
fashion  of  his  own  with  pilasters  and  Grecian  columns, 
under  which  he  boldly  placed  entire  councils  of  cardinals 


LEONARD   GAULTIER.  1 55 

and  bishops  ;  witness  the  heading  of  the  Bibliotlicca 
Vctcniiu  Patriim,  into  which  he  crowded  nearly  forty 
figures.  He  united  also  with  a  certain  grace  the 
sacred  and  the  profane,  placing  among  ideal  saints 
the  sinning  fine  ladies  of  the  time,  with  their  large 
collarettes  and  jewels  falling  on  naked  breasts.  The 
work  of  Andrew  Valladier,  chaplain  of  the  King,  entitled 
Mctanc'alogic  Sacrc'c,  published  by  Peter  Chevalier  in 
1609,  was  adorned  with  a  title  of  this  particular  kind,  in 
which  Gaultier  had  no  rival,  and  which  preserves  the 
precision  of  Flemish  masters  in  the  detail  of  ornaments 
of  the  toilet. 

He  was  one  of  the  first  to  work  for  Sebastian 
Cramoisy,  printer  and  publisher,  who  had  established 
his  shop  in  the  Rue  St.  Jacques  at  the  sign  of  the 
"  Stork."  We  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  of  him  later 
in  connection  with  the  Royal  Printing  House,  of  which 
he  was  the  first  director;  he  is  mentioned  now  because 
in  161 1  Leonard  Gaultier  engraved  for  him  the  frontis- 
piece of  LAiglc  Francais,  a  collection  of  sermons 
by  Thomas  Girault.  The  publisher  used  the  same  plate 
in  1 61 8  for  the  sermons  of  Raymond  de  Hezeque. 

Besides  the  publications  of  Sebastian  Cramoisy  and 
Chevallier,  Leonard  Gaultier  adorned  also  those  of 
Nicholas  Buon  and  many  other  publishers  of  the  time 
in  Paris  and  Lyons.  With  such  a  profusion  of  works 
emanating  from  a  single  artist,  without  reckoning  those 
which  were  produced  in  great  quantity  by  men  of  less 
note,  wood  engraving  was  dead.  At  most  it  dared 
to  put  a  wood  block  of  a  printer's  mark  on  a  title  ; 
more  ordinarily  this  mark  was  not  alone  sufficient, 
and  showed  the  disdain  in  which  taste  then  held  wood- 


156  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

cutting.  Thus  goes  fashion,  heedless  of  the  most 
elementary  rules  of  art.  To  put  type  within  an  en- 
graved title,  or  to  ornament  a  printed  text  with  engrav- 
ings, is  a  heresy  of  principle  that  was  established  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  by  the  strength  of  its  cleverness 
and  talent.  But  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth, 
in  spite  of  Leonard  Gaultier  or  Thomas  de  Leu,  these 
overloaded  titles,  overpowering  the  opening  of  the 
Book,  offend  the  eye  by  their  excessive  blackness,  and 
incontestably  make  us  regret  the  admirable  frontispiece 
on  wood  of  the,  preceding  century. 

This  is  all  the  ornament,  properly  so  called,  of  the 
reign  of  Louis  XI I L  Leonard  Gaultier  composed  also 
small  vignettes  for  an  edition  of  Homer,  but  they  are 
mediocre  and  unskilful,  and  it  must  be  said  that  there 
were  others  following  the  same  path.  John  Picart  made 
a  frontispiece  with  architecture  and  figures  for  the 
Histoire  de  la  Maison  dc  Chdtillon-siir-Marnc  for  account 
of  Sebastian  Cramoisy.  A  cold  and  hard  artist  he  was, 
the  rival  of  Gaultier,  and  one  of  the  most  employed  of 
the  vignette  engravers  of  Paris.  There  was  also  Jaspar 
Isaac,  a  mediocre  craftsman,  but  who  could  design 
clever  titles,  among  them  that  of  the  continuation  of 
the  Annalcs  of  Baronius  for  the  publisher  Denis  de  la 
None.  Then  Claude  Mellan,  whose  great  and  clever 
talent  did  not  disdain  second-rate  works,  in  which  he 
gave  free  play  to  his  burin.  It  must  be  said,  however, 
that  his  bold  touch  did  not  well  accommodate  itself 
to  reduced  spaces,  and  that  he  was  not  working  in  the 
field  necessary  to  his  inventive  powers.  We  mention 
his  portrait  of  Louis  XIV.  at  the  head  of  the  Code  L.oiiis 
XIV.;  the  title  of  the  Perfection  du  Chresficn,  in  which 


ENGRAVED   TITLES   IN    FRENCH    BOOKS.        1 57 


Fig.    71.— Title    engraved    by   Claude    Mellan    for    Urban    VIII.'s 
Poesies,  printed  at  the  Roj-al  Printing  House,  in  1642. 

is  included  a  portrait  of  Cardinal  Richelieu,  A.  Vitre, 
1647,  folio;  that    of   the    Instruction    du   Dauphin    for 


158  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

Cramoisy,  1640  ;  that  of  the  works  of  St.  Bernard  for 
the  Royal  Printing  House  ;  and,  perhaps  the  best  of 
all,  the  Poesies  of  Pope  Urban  VIII.,  of  which  we  here 
give  a  copy. 

Lyons  did  not  remain  far  behind  in  the  movement, 
but  how  changed  from  its  great  reputation  of  the 
sixteenth  century !  J.  de  Fornazeris  engraved  the 
frontispieces  to  Justus  Lipsius,  published  by  Horace 
Cardon  in  [613.  Peter  Favre  and  Audran  imitated 
them.  C.  Audran  designed  for  Claude  Landry  the 
Theologia  Naturalis  of  Theophilus  Reynaud,  and  the 
bookseller  Picquet  ordered  from  him  the  title  for  the 
Annales  Mmoriim  in  1628.  Everywhere  taste  was 
modelled  on  the  works  of  the  capital,  to  name  only 
the  principal  centres,  Rouen,  Rheims,  Sens,  down  to 
Venes,  a  small  town  of  Tarn,  where  William  de  Nau- 
tonnier  published  in  1603  his  curious  book  Mecoiiic'trie, 
whose  frontispiece  was  bordered  by  views  of  cities, 
with  an  equestrian  portrait  of  King  Henry. 

And  if  we  pass  to  Germany,  we  find  Mayence  with 
mediocre  engravings  for  titles  according  to  the  formula 
and  process  used  elsewhere,  the  title  of  the  Droit  Civil 
of  Aymar  Vailius,  that  of  the  works  of  St.  Bonaventura 
in  1609  for  the  bookseller  Antoine  Hierat,  and  that  of 
the  Viridarium  Virtutmn,  rather  cleverly  treated  by  the 
burin  in  1610.  What  a  period  had  passed  since  Guten- 
berg, Fust,  and  Schoeffer  !  There  was  still  one  Yves 
Schoeffer  at  Mayence,  but  only  the  name  lived ;  no- 
thing more  remained  of  the  old  printers  of  the  other 
century.  It  was  the  same  at  Bamberg,  Cologne,  Nurem- 
berg, and  Basle,  in  all  the  cities  that  made  the  honour  of 
typography  and  the    Book  in  former  times.     Cologne 


GERMANY  AND  ITALY  IN  THE  I/TH  CENTURY.   I  59 

was  neither  better  nor  worse  favoured  than  others.  The 
booksellers  Boetzer,  Kinck,  and  De  Binghy  had  pass- 
able engravings  for  their  titles ;  and  the  Commentaries 
of  Salmeron  may  be  mentioned,  with  portraits  from  the 
German  originals  of  the  fifteenth  century.  At  Nurem- 
berg there  was  a  curious  specimen  treating  of  natural 
history  by  Basil  Besler,  in  which  the  artist  gives  the 
interior  of  a  zoological  cabinet  of  the  time  ;  but  the 
blocks  and  the  typography  of  the  city  of  Koburger  are 
wanting.  Basle  held  its  own  later  in  relief  engraving. 
Meantime  there  was  a  mediocre  set  of  the  Dance  of 
Death  on  copper,  published  by  Miegen,  1621. 

At  Jena  and  Frankfort-on-the-Main  were  prosperous 
printing  houses,  but  engravings  and  ornamentation 
were  neglected.  Frankfort  employed  the  frontispiece 
in  the  Traitc  du  Commerce  of  Sigismond  Scaccia, 
published  by  Zuner  in  1648  ;  it  was  divided  into  com- 
partments, in  which  the  Bourse,  the  Exchange,  and  the 
port  of  the  city  were  represented. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  mention  the  Italian  cities 
which  followed  the  movement.  Venice  from  the 
middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  had  used  engraved 
frontispieces,  among  which  was  that  of  Domenic  Zenoi 
for  the  Portraits  des  Homines  Illitstres  of  Nicholas 
Valegio.  In  the  same  city  James  Piccini  worked  for 
account  of  Sgava  in  1648,  but  he  was  equally  at  the 
service  of  Roman  publishers,  for  whom  he  designed  a 
number  of  titles.  Along  with  him  Frederic  Greuter 
adorned  the  publications  of  Alexander  Zanetti,  not  with- 
out talent,  but  without  individuality.  Bologna,  Brescia, 
Florence,  and  Naples,  had  no  original  sentiment ;  they 
followed  indifferently  the  manner  of  the  day. 


l60  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

In  Holland,  artists  were  rather  numerous.  The 
family  of  the  Passes  designed  vignettes  for  books,  and 
engraved  frontispieces,  admirably  studied  and  com- 
posed. The  clear  and  truly  personal  style  of  their  works 
places  their  illustrations  in  the  first  rank  among  those 
of  their  time.  They  had,  at  the  same  time,  the  genius 
that  created  and  the  intelligent  burin  that  faithfully 
translated  an  idea.  They  imagined  with  art  the  scenes 
that  the}'  depicted  without  at  all  copying  their  prede- 
cessors. From  1599,  the  date  of  the  publication 
of  the  Hortus  Dclicianim,  one  of  their  best  works,  up 
to  about  1623,  they  were  in  Holland,  at  Arnheim  and 
at  Amsterdam.  In  1623  we  find  one  of  them,  the 
most  celebrated,  Crispin  the  younger,  designing  figures 
for  the  Manege  Royal  of  Pluvinel,  published  by  Angelier 
in  Paris,  and  for  another  edition,  with  folding  plates, 
in  1624  for  WilHam  Lenoir,  at  the  sign  of  the 
"White  Rose  Crowned."  This  magnificent  work,  in 
which  the  King,  Louis  XIII.,  is  represented  receiving 
lessons  from  the  rider  Pluvinel,  had  a  third  and 
more  complete  reimpression  in  1625  with  another 
publisher,  Michael  Nivelle.  Here  we  see  the  Dutch 
accredited  in  France,  in  Paris,  in  the  city  then  the 
most  ready  to  understand  and  pay  for  the  works  of 
eminent  artists.  In  1624  Gombauld  published  an 
Endymion — Boileau  later  associated  Gombauld  with 
other  poets  to  declare  him  a  maker  of  pitiable  sonnets — 
Nicholas  Buon,  the  bookseller  named  above,  undertook 
the  publication,  and  employed  Pass,  Leonard  Gaultier, 
and  J.  Picart  to  furnish  plates  in  octavo  size.  Heavy 
and  black  as  were  these  vignettes,  they  do  not  the  less 
make  a  good  appearance  in  the  edition  of  the  forgotten 


II 


1 62  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

poet ;  and  it  is  due  to  truth  to  recognise  how  much  Pass 
was  above  his  collaborators.  The  following  year,  1625, 
he  engraved  the  Dionysiaqiies  of  Nonus,  for  Robert 
Fouet,  and  the  Roman  dcs  Romans  of  Du  Verdier,  com- 
prising more  than  ten  engravings,  in  a  very  free  and 
bold  manner.  The  Bcrgcr  Extravagant  and  the  Academic 
de  PEspc'c  came  in  1628,  among  numerous  others. 

To  speak  truly,  Crispin  Pass  did  not  devote  himself 
entirely  to  Parisian  publishers  ;  he  always  preserved 
interests  in  Flanders  so  as  to  return  there  from  time  to 
time  ;  but  he  did  not  find  in  his  own  country  the  ready 
and  assured  sales  of  Paris.  Still  the  city  of  Leyden  had 
then  one  of  the  riiost  renowned  workshops  of  typo- 
graphy ;  the  Elzevirs  had  commenced  to  make  a  good 
place  for  themselves  among  the  printers  of  Europe  by 
the  extreme  correctness  of  their  editions,  the  distinct- 
ness of  their  work,  and  their  marvellous  art  in  the  taste 
and  economy  of  the  Book.  In  reality,  the  sizes  and 
characters  of  their  books  were  very  small,  but  if  the 
smallness  of  the  page  did  not  allow  room  for  vignette 
or  ornament,  they  bore  a  certain  practical  elegance 
that  was  not  without  charm.  The  origin  of  the  printing 
house  was  due  to  Louis  Elzevir,  who  published  in  1592 
an  edition  of  Eutropius  at  Leyden.  He  left  sons,  who 
associated  themselves  together,  and  founded  a  house 
which  was  unrivalled. 

y  Bonaventure  Elzevir,  grandson  of  Louis,  was  the 
most  illustrious  of  this  family,  so  remarkably  devoted  to 
its  art.  He  took  Abraham  as  partner,  and  together 
they  put  forth  those  little  Latin  classics  in  duodecimo  of 
which  the  value  is  now  so  great.  Among  others,  Pliny 
issued    from  their  presses  in  the    year   1635,  in  three 


THE    ELZEVIRS. 


163 


volumes,  Virgil  in  1636,  and  Cicero  in  1642.  To-day 
amateurs,  above  all  those  afflicted  with  bibliomania, 
hunt    for    unbound    Elzevirs,    because    they    have    full 


P"i&-  73- — Title  of  the  Iniitntioii  of  the  Elzc\irs. 

margins.  From  about  1633  to  1639  these  volumes  were 
composed  of  paper  of  rather  small  size,  making  a 
page  of  a  hundred  and  thirty  to  a  hundred  and  thirty- 


164  THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 

three  millimetres  ;  from  1639  onwards  the  paper  was 
larger,  and  the  page  from  about  a  hundred  and  thirty- 
five  to  a  hundred  and  thirty-seven.  One  must  be  a 
book-lover  to  understand  the  interest  attaching  to  these 
figures,  and  employ  his  entire  activity  in  the  discovery 
of  these  undiscoverable  books,  which  are  concealed  as 
soon  as  they  are  met  with. 

One  of  the  most  esteemed  of  their  works  is  the 
De  Iinitatione  of  Thomas  a  Kempis,  printed  by  John  and 
Daniel  Elzevir  about  1653,  and  known  as  the  edition, 
without  date.  But  as  the  association  of  John  and 
Daniel  is  known  to  have  lasted  from  1652  to  1654,  the 
date  1653  appears  to  be  very  plausible.  We  repro- 
duce the  entire  title  of  this  typographical  bijou,  which 
merited  a  cleverer  engraver. 

The  rarest  of  all  the  numerous  Elzevirs,  possibl}'  by 
reason  of  the  popularity  of  its  subject,  is  the  Pastissicr 
Frangois,  Louis  and  Daniel  Elzevir,  Amsterdam,  1655, 
of  which  M.  Morgand  had  an  uncut  copy,  measuring 
a  hundred  and  forty-three  millimetres,  in  1878. 
The  Benzon  copy  sold  in  1875  for  three  thousand  two 
hundred  and  fifty-five  francs. 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  the  Elzevirs  frequently 
avoided  dating  or  even  signing  their  books,  for  reasons 
easy  to  comprehend.  Publishing  numerous  works,  they 
were  afraid  of  com  promising  themselves  in  the  eyes 
of  the  powerful,  and  they  let  them  go  forth  with- 
out any  trade  mark.  These  artists  in  typography  were, 
besides,  the  most  prudent  and  subtle  of  men.  Working 
at  a  time  when  bookselling  had  become  an  acknow- 
ledged commerce,  and  a  trade  requiring  all  the  skill  and 
resources  of  others,  they  wisely  availed  themselves  of 


CRAMOISY — FRENCH   COMPANIES.  165 

these,  gathering  for  themselves  honour  and  profit  with- 
out having  done  more  than  seize  their  opportunity. 
Employing  the  characters  of  Claude  Garamond,  of 
James  Sanlecques,  and  the  papers  of  Angouleme, 
M.   Didot  thence  claims  them  as  French  publishers. 

In  France  the  Elzevirs  had  no  rivals  ;  but  a  fashion 
was  introduced  from  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century 
of  associating  together  publishers  in  the  production  of 
important  and  costly  books.  There  were,  among  others, 
the  company  of  the  "Grand  Navire"  in  1610,  of  the 
"Source"  in  1622,  and  of  the  "  Soleil"  in  1629.  In  1631 
several  publishers  united  and  founded  a  second  company 
of  the  "  Grand  Navire."  These  were  the  two  Cramoisys, 
Sebastian  and  Gabriel,  Denis  Bechet,  John  Branchu, 
Denis  Moreau,  Claude  Sonnius,  and  Denis  Thierry.  The 
associates  took  a  ship  as  their  mark,  but  without  putting 
their  names  on  the  masts,  as  the  original  company  of  the 
"  Grand  Navire  "  had  done.  They  published,  at  common 
expense  and  divided  profits,  great  works,  of  which  each 
one  of  them  had  the  right  of  sale,  but  of  course  reserv- 
ing to  themselves  the  right  to  publish  such  others  as 
they  pleased.  Sebastian  Cramoisy  passes  as  the 
chief,  the  moral  director  of  another  company,  formed 
to  publish  the  Fathers  of  the  Church,  with  the  royal 
types,  a  company  affiliated  to  the  "Grand  Navire" 
and  signed  in  1638  by  Denis  Moreau,  Gille  Morel, 
Stephen  Richer,  Claude  Sonnius,  and  Gabriel  Cramoisy. 
But  as  regards  their  personal  works,  if  they  had 
neither  the  perfection  nor  the  aspect  of  those  of 
Froben,  Aldus,  the  Estiennes,  or  even  of  Plantin, 
they  at  least  surpassed  the  French  books  of  the  time. 
Formerly   syndic  of  the   Corporation  in  1 602,    twenty- 


1 66  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

nineyears  before  the  constitution  of  the  "Grand  Navire," 
Cramoisy  was  besides  sheriff  of  Paris,  and  he  exercised 
his  trade  in  a  shop  in  the  Rue  St.  Jacques  which  had 
been  that  of  Father  Nivelle,  the  doyen  of  booksellers, 
who  died  in  1 603  at  the  age  of  eighty  years. 

The  position  of  Cramoisy  made  it  natural  for 
Cardinal  de  Richelieu  to  fix  his  eyes  on  him  for  the 
direction  of  the  Royal  Printing  House.  This  establish- 
ment, founded  by  the  King  in  1640,  was  installed  within 
the  Louvre,  in  a  long  series  of  rooms  which  formed  a 
workshop  without  rival  in  the  world.  Sublet  des 
Noyers  was  named  superintendent,  Trichet  du  Fresne 
corrector ;  and  under  this  triple  direction  the  presses 
commenced  to  work.  The  first  book  was  the  Imitation 
dc  Jcsns-Christ,  dated  1640,  folio,  a  fine  book  enough, 
but  not  to  be  compared  to  the  Elzevir  editions.  The 
types  used  in  this  book  are  attributed  to  Claude  Gara- 
mond,  founder  of  the  sixteenth  century,  to  whom  are 
due  the  Greek  types  of  Francis  I.  With  the  Royal 
Printing  House,  as  often  happens  with  State  enterprises, 
the  cost  was  great,  and  the  return  nothing.  Only  a  few 
years  after  its  foundation  it  had  swallowed  up  nearly- 
400,000  livres,  a  very  heavy  sum  for  a  badly  balanced 
treasury  ;  it  had  produced  sixty  or  seventy  volumes  of 
moderate  value  ;  and  after  Cramoisy  the  management 
was  so  little  in  earnest  that  it  turned  the  workshops 
into  a  stable,  called  "the  little  stable  of  the  King,"  at 
the  commencement  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

To  return  to  the  artists  of  the  Book  under  Louis 
XIIL  and  Cardinal  Richelieu,  we  must  go  back  a  little, 
before  the  foundation  of  the  Royal  Printing  House,  and 
we  shall  find  the  French  school  of  illustration  at  a  time 


callot's  illustrations. 


167 


when  Callot  was  giving  it  a  vigorous  lift  and  tiying 
to  do  away  with  its  aftected  and  hard  style.  It  must  be 
acknowledged  that  Callot  was  not  a  vignettist,  a  special 
designer  ;  his  art  aimed  higher,  and  ordinarily  succeeded 
better  ;  yet  he  did  not  disdain  frontispieces,  and  made 
them  for  the  Coustumicr  dc  Lorraine,  the  Harpalicc  of 
Bracciolini,   and  for  a   crowd   of  others   of  which   the 


Fi£ 


74. — Plate  taken  from  the  Ltimicrc  dit  Cioistve.     Copper  plate 
by  Callot. 


enumeration  would  be  tedious.  Certain  of  his  works 
passed  into  Italy,  where  they  raised  a  little  the  debased 
level  of  the  Book.  Then  he  adorned  several  works 
with  etchings,  among  them  the  Lniniere  dii  Cloistre, 
published  by  Francis  Langlois  1646.  It  was  one  of 
the  symbolic  and  sententious  works  with  which  the 
public  taste  is  never  satiated,  and  a  kind  of  guide  for  the 
priest.  At  the  bottom  of  the  little  etching  here  given, 
representing  birds  falling  from  a  tree,  we  read, — 


l68  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

"  Ses  petits  hors  du  nid  le  courbeau  jette  en  has, 
Lorsque  par  leur  blancheur  ils  liii  sont  dissemblables. 
Le  bon  prelat  de  mcsme  au  cloistre  nadmct  pas 
Ceux  qui  n'ont  rien  d'esgal  a  ses  moeurs  venerablcs." 

Callot  also  made  another  set  of  emblems  on  the  life 
of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  published  in  1 620  a  series 
of  prints  in  quarto  for  the  tragedy  of  Soliiuan  of 
Bonarelli,  for  the  account  of  Cecconnelli.  France  im- 
posed herself  on  fallen  Ital}^,  she  got  her  works  dispersed 
there,  and  if  an  engraver  arose  there,  he  did  not  disdain 
to  consecrate  himself  to  France.  Witness  Delia  Bella, 
who  went  from  Italy  to  France,  where  he  was  taken 
under  the  protection  of  Cardinal  Richelieu.  It  was 
about  the  time  of  the  establishment  of  the  Royal 
Printing  House,  and  it  was  expected  that  employment 
would  be  found  at  once  for  him. 

Callot  was  the  model  chosen  by  the  young  Italian 
artist,  and  this  choice  might  have  been  less  happy. 
Delia  Bella  took  from  his  master  the  philosophic  vein, 
the  drollery  of  design,  which  he  exercised  at  first  in 
humorous  frontispieces,  among  others  that  of  Scarron's 
works,  where  nine  fish-women,  taking  the  place  of  the 
Muses,  dance  around  the  poet.  But  he  passed  from 
gay  and  pleasant  to  severe,  and  made  large  pages  of 
architecture  for  serious  titles.  In  1649  he  designed 
the  plates  for  the  large  and  undigested  volume  of 
Valdor  on  Louis  XIII.,  published  by  Antoine  Estienne 
at  the  Royal  Printing  House.  ■  His  success  was  not 
there ;  Delia  Bella  was  a  painter  of  groups,  of  ornaments, 
of  subjects  somewhat  heavy  and  overdrawn,  but  which, 
after  numerous  transformations,  opened  a  new  way  to 
the  vignettists  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


Fig.  75. — Title  of  the  Maniere  Univeyselk,  by  Desargues,  in  1643,  by 
Abraham  Bosse. 


I/O  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

With  Abraham  Bosse  the  decoration  of  the  Book 
took  a  considerable  extension.  Numerous  and  charm- 
ing ornamented  letters,  heads  of  pages,  and  tailpieces 
appear.  There  are  few  artists  that  have  done  so  much 
as  he  for  graceful  illustration  and  harmony  between 
the  vignette  and  the  printed  page.  His  prodigious 
fecundity  made  him  attempt  every  style  ;  and  after  the 
gaieties  of  the  print  in  which  he  laughed  with  his  con- 
temporaries, he  adopted  a  grave  air  to  trace  more  severe 
subjects  on  copper.  However,  the  book  entitled  La 
Manierc  Universelle,  by  Desargues,  with  numerous  geo- 
metrical figures  and  an  agreeable  frontispiece,  bearing 
the  dedication  to  the  Seigneur  de  Noyers,  super- 
intendent of  the  Royal  Printing  House,  was  a  critical 
work,  in  which  Bosse,  under  a  serious  standard,  did  not 
spare  an  enemy.  We  do  not  bear  ill-will  to  the  artist, 
however,  for  the  following  year  he  published  fourteen 
plates  for  the  Suetonius  printed  at  the   Louvre. 

He  successively  designed  plates  for  the  Histoire  dc 
St.  Louis,  numerous  vignettes  for  pious  books,  figures 
for  the  Pucellc  of  Chapelain  and  for  the  Larcins  dc  la 
Fortune.  He  was  always  himself,  refined  and  in- 
genious, whether  in  the  most  barren  or  the  most 
complicated  subjects. 

He  has  left  us  in  a  celebrated  print  a  representation 
of  a  bookseller's  shop  of  his  time.  It  is  for  us  an 
interesting  page,  in  which  is  shown  simply  and  rather 
naively  the  picturesque  side  of  these  stores,  with  the 
dealer  and  his  wife  selling  new  works  to  their 
customers.  The  shop  is  compact,  and  very  much  like 
the  open-air  stalls  of  to-day  ;  posting-bills  above  the 
shelves    indicate    the    "new  books;"    and    if  the    in- 


ABRAHAM   BOSSE. 


171 


Fig.  76. — Print  by  Abraliani  Bossc  representing-  the  booksellers  of 
the  Palace  under  Louis  XIII. 


scriptions  given  by  Bosse  be  credited,  the  Palace  dealer 
oftered  his  books  with  singular  eclecticism  :  Boccaccio, 


172  THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 

Aretin,  the  Astrce  of  D'Urfe,  the  Bible,  and  MachiavelH. 
In  the  hands  of  the  woman  is  seen  the  romance  Marianne: 

"  Icy  les  cavaliers  les  plus  adventureux 
En  lisant  les  romans  s'animent  a  combattre  ; 
Et  de  leur  passion  les  amants  langoureux 
Flattent  les  mouvcments  par  des  vers  de  theatre," 

says  the  text  of  Bosse.  What  was  commonly  done 
then  is  still  done,  shopping  and  rummaging  the  stalls, 
and  those  of  the  Palace  were  attractive. 

If  we  credit  Sauval,  the  great  number  of  booksellers, 
in  the  middle  of  the  century,  was  due  to  the  wits  of  the 
Hotel  de  Rambouillet.  The  passion  for  novelty,  for 
recent  works,  had  produced  that  quantity  of  publishers, 
he  says,  that  we  have  seen  on  the  Pont  Neuf,  and  that 
we  still  see  to-day  at  the  Palace  and  the  University, 
but  of  which  the  number  is  so  multiplied  in  all  these 
places  that  in  the  Palace  they  count  more  than  other 
dealers  ;  and  as  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Uni- 
versity, they  are  obliged,  in  order  to  lodge  the  rest,  to 
extend  the  ancient  bounds  from  St.  Yves  to  the  river 
{S?i\.\\2L\,Antiqiiitcs  de  Paris,  viii.,  354). 

In  fact,  each  year  saw  an  increase  in  the  number  of 
publishers  in  corporation,  with  syndicate  and  adjuncts. 
Under  the  reign  of  Louis  XIII.,  the  single  year  1 610 
had  fifty  to  take  rank,  and  among  them  Antoine  Vitre, 
who  was  to  become  the  most  illustrious  of  his  contem- 
poraries. But,  as  there  were  no  more  than  six  printers, 
it  may  be  inferred  that  all  the  rest  were  booksellers, 
in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  of  those  who  encumbered 
afterwards  the  great  sallc  of  which  Sauval  speaks. 
Antoine  Vitre  was  syndic  in  May,  1643,  on  the  acces- 
sion of  Louis  XIV.     He  had  four  adjuncts.     With  him 


A.  VITRE  AND  THE  rOLVGLOT.        173 

the  Book  marked  the  solemn  st3'le  that  the  commence- 
ment of  the  century  had  given  to  it.  Royal  printer 
for  the  Oriental  languages  from  162 1,  he  undertook  a 
S3'riac  work,  the  tirst  that  was  attempted  in  Paris. 
The  project  of  a  Polyglot  Bible  gave  him  the  idea  of 
acquiring  for  the  King  the  Oriental  manuscripts  and 
matrices  of  Savary  de  Breves.  The  King  left  to  him 
the  care  of  negotiating  the  business,  but  did  not  reim- 
burse him  without  numerous  difficulties,  in  the  midst 
of  which  the  printer  was  made  to  lose  the  means  of 
conveniently  continuing  his  trade.  The  advocate  Le 
Ja}'  charging  himself  with  the  enormous  expenses  neces- 
sitated by  the  Polyglot  Bible,  it  was  composed  in  the 
hope  that  Cardinal  Richelieu  would  pay  the  cost.  He 
was  willing  to  do  so,  but  required  that  his  name  should 
figure  on  the  book  ;  and  as  Le  Jay,  an  independent  man, 
formally  opposed  it,  Vitre  met  with  ill-will  from  the 
Minister,  which  increased  from  day  to  day.  In  1645 
the  impression  was  finished,  but  Le  Jay  was  ruined,  and 
if  we  admire  the  paper,  the  type,  and  the  extraordinary 
size  of  the  nine  volumes  of  the  Polyglot  Bible,  we  find 
in  it  so  many  faults,  errors,  and  misprints  that  it  has 
fallen  to  nearly  nothing,  hardly  being  worth  its  binding. 
There  were  terrible  mortifications  in  the  business,  and 
Vitre  had  to  submit  to  them  more  than  any  one.  Never- 
theless he  did  not  let  his  presses  stand  still,  and  he 
published  successively  Arabic,  Turkish,  and  Persian 
works.  His  action  against  the  Savary  heirs,  as  repre- 
senting the  King,  in  the  acquisition  mentioned  above, 
continued  also  after  the  impression  of  the  Bible,  and 
hindered  his  progress.  He  struggled  on ;  and  the 
assembl}^  of  clergy,  of  which  he  was  the  printer,  sought 


[74  I'HE    PRINTED   BOOK. 

to  help  him  out  of  his  difficulties.  The  matter  being  once 
terminated,  the  Cardinal  being  dead,  and  Vitre  having 
been  named  by  Colbert  director  of  the  Royal  Printing 
House  in  place  of  Cramoisy,  he  died  in  his  turn,  and 
was  later  accused  of  having  destroyed  the  types  and 
matrices  of  the  Polyglot  Bible,  so  that  they  should  not 
be  used  after  him.  This  fable,  long  accredited,  has 
since  been  ascertained  to  be  false,  for  the  punches  and 
matrices  passed  to  the  Royal  Library,  thence  to  the 
Royal  Printing  House,  reorganised  in   1691. 

Antoine  Vitre,  in  spite  of  his  misfortunes,  was  a 
great  personage.  He  was  painted  by  Champagne  and 
engraved  by  Morin,  as  was  Richelieu  himself.  The 
portrait  was  reproduced  in  the  book  of  M.  Delaborde, 
La  Gravure  (p.  189).  Such  was  the  man  whom  we 
meet  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  as 
syndic  of  booksellers  ;  and  it  was  by  no  means  a  sinecure, 
a  canonry  giving  honour  and  profit,  quite  the  other  way. 
With  the  Draconian  rules  on  the  subject,  the  syndic 
assumed  a  heavy  burden  towards  the  King,  as  well  as 
towards  his  kinsmen.  Religious  quarrels  envenomed 
questions,  and  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes 
was  to  have  for  its  immediate  corollary  new  and  more 
severe  royal  ordinances. 

The  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  saw  the  zenith  of  engraving 
with  the  burin,  but  not  that  of  printing  or  illustra- 
tion. Doubtless  it  would  be  puerile  to  pretend  that 
typography  had  not  made  any  material  progress  ;  it 
had  done  so  in  engraving  and  in  composition  ;  work 
was  done  more  quickly,  because  the  presses  had  been 
made  more  perfect.  But  the  wise  harmony  of  the  old 
printers,  their   sure  taste,  even   in  their  old  irregular 


THE    REIGN   OF   LOUIS   XIV.  175 

blocks,  was  no  longer  there  to  form  a  graceful  and 
charming  whole,  which  is  to  modern  precision  as  a 
picture  by  Van  Eyck  is  to  a  chromo-lithograph.  Under 
Louis  XIV.,  titles  became  regular,  following,  as  we 
have  said  above,  and  modelling  themselves  on,  the 
affected  and  peruked  people  who  read  them.  All  art 
entered  on  this  path  of  sublimity  and  grandeur.  The 
painter  Le  Brun  is  the  highest  exponent  of  this  false 
Olympus,  where  an  heroic  pose  became  necessary  for  the 
most  humble  movements.  Made  popular  by  engraving 
by  Pesne,  Audran,  Poilly,  Edelinck,  and  a  hundred 
others,  this  tendency  overran  everything :  art  and 
industry,  painting  and  tapestry,  illustration  and  typo- 
graphy itself.  All  was  grand,  in  reverse  of  other 
times,  when  all  was  small  and  mean.  The  embellish- 
ments of  the  Book  were  full  of  gods  in  perukes  and 
goddesses  in  armour,  Louis  XIV.  as  Apollo,  as  the  sun 
illuminating  the  world.  "  Nee  pluribus  impar"  was  not 
the  device  of  one  man  ;  it  was  the  mighty  and  glorious 
cry  of  a  whole  people,  from  great  to  small,  from  the 
sublime  painter  to  the  modest  printer. 

Ordinarily  these  exaggerations  are  not  useful  to  the 
arts.  Here  they  were.  But,  for  the  matter  that  specially 
occupies  us,  it  does  not  appear  that  the  Book  was 
much  advanced.  It  approached  a  marvellous  epoch  of 
a  delicate  and  graceful  art ;  but  it  did  not  find  its  form  ; 
it  dragged  painfully  after  the  Plantinian  works,  heavily 
throwing  its  etchings  and  burins  in  the  middle  of  texts, 
gross  and  in  bad  taste.  Yet  taste  in  literature  had  an 
onward  tendency ;  Moliere  and  La  Fontaine  produced 
on  their  contemporaries  the  effect  that  in  our  day  the 
naturalists    have    produced  on   the    romanticists ;    but 


1/6  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

this   was  not  for  long.     Majesty   recovered   its  rights 
with  Bossuet,   Boileau,  and  the  others. 

Sebastien  Leclerc  was  one  of  the  rare  artists  of  the  end 

JE  laboure  un  champ  ptem  Repines 
Qui  nt  rapport e  fruit  ny  fleur , 
Et  me  fens  ptquer  jufqu^au  ccsur 
Par  mille  point es  ajjaflines 
Que  man  dejiin  a  de  malheur  I 
Ce  neji  que  labeur  ^  douleur 


Fig.   77. — Tailpiece   of  Sebastien    Leclerc  for    the    Promoiade  dc 
St.  Germain. 

of  the  seventeenth  century  who  dreamed  of  the  vignette 
in  the  midst  of  this  invasion  of  pompous  commonplace. 
Successor  of  Callot  in  manner,  induced  by  the  pub- 
lishers,   he  began   this    style   with    a    romance    of  La 


SEBASTIEN   LECLERC.  I  77 

Calpren^de,  and  continued  with  the  Promenade  de 
St.  Germain  of  Louis  le  Laboureur,  bailie  of  Mont- 
morency, of  whom  Boileau  said  such  curious  things. 
This  is  one  of  the  rarest  books  of  Leclerc,  and  we 
reproduce  one  of  the  pages,  with  a  charming  tail- 
piece, which  comes  very  near  those  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  There  was,  moreover,  a  charm  in  this  in- 
genious designer ;  he  adorned  the  works  of  his  contem- 
poraries with  graceful  vignettes  and  decorations  full  of 
suppleness.  It  may  be  believed,  besides,  that  he  did 
not  remain  behind  his  confreres  in  figure  composition 
or  allegorical  and  Divine  emblems.  His  art  did  not 
throw  off  the  errors  of  the  existing  school ;  he  was  con- 
tent not  to  copy  any  one  and  to  make  his  works  truly 
his  own.  Such  were,  for  example,  the  vignettes  of  the 
Histoirc  de  Tiircnne,  where  the  heads  of  the  chapters, 
the  ornamented  letters,  and  the  tailpieces,  harmoniously 
agree,  and  make  the  book,  a  little  heavy  in  impression,  a 
most  agreeable  work.  Leclerc  then  found  himself  ready 
to  design  vignettes  for  the  works  of  Racine  for  the  pub- 
lisher, Claude  Barbin,  another  name  frequently  encoun- 
tered in  Boileau.  The  title  of  Vol.  ii.  merits  attention. 
The  same  year  of  this  last  publication,  1676,  Sebas- 
tien  Leclerc  illustrated  the  "  Metamorphoses  "  of  Ovid 
for  Benserade,  the  engraving  of  which  cost  the  King 
more  than  10,000  livres.  Thus  adorned,  the  book  had 
not  a  bad  appearance,  but  a  satirist  of  the  time,  Hardin 
very  probably,  made  on  it  this  quatrain  : — 

"  Mais  quant  a  moi  j'en  trouve  tout  fort  beau  : 
Papier,  dorure,  images,  caractere, 
Hormis  les  vers  qu'il  fallait  laisser  fairc 
A  La  Fontaine." 

12 


178  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

It  may  be  imagined  what  an  engraver  could  produce 
working  from  1650  and  dying  in  171 5,  that  is,  a  Ufe  of 
work  the  longest  that  could  be  hoped  for.  Leclerc  was 
the  absolute  contemporary  of  the  King.  He  died, 
like  him,  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
leaving  work  widely  scattered  among  books,  funeral 
orations,  and  placards.  After  the  example  of  Callot 
and  Bosse,  he  did  not  disdain  satire.  One  of  his 
prettiest  vignettes  served  to  illustrate  some  pamphlet 
of  Richesource  against  the  journalists  of  his  time ; 
it  represents  a  dandy  of  about  1679  offering  his 
gazette. 

By  the  side  of  this  unrivalled  antagonist  it  is  per- 
mitted to  place  Lepautre,  twenty  years  older  than 
Leclerc,  but  whose  studies  had  been  principally  on 
architecture.  In  the  moments  that  he  left  his  special 
work  he  devoted  himself  to  frontispieces  and  vignettes  ; 
nevertheless,  although  he  had  before  him  the  charming 
designs  of  Leclerc,  he  confined  himself  to  a  cold  and 
hard  manner,  keeping,  besides,  as  much  as  possible 
to  titles,  in  which  his  particular  talent  could  find 
scope.  He  designed  also  the  Chartreux  Missal  of 
1679,  the  Gallia  Christiana  after  Marot,  the  Dioptriqnc 
Oculairc  of  P.  Cherubin,  engraved  by  Edelinck,  and  a 
thousand  other  works  of  small  repute. 

Very  different  was  Francis  Chauveau,  who,  without 
having  the  delicacy  of  Sebastien  Leclerc  or  his  art 
of  arrangement,  treated  at  least  with  grace  little 
figures  and  illustrations.  Certainly  there  is  an  enor- 
mous distance  between  these  correct  and  commonplace 
engraved  plates  and  the  delightful  wood  engravings 
of  the  time  of   Geoffroy  Tory,   for  example.     But,   be 


LECLERC,   LEPAUTRE,   CHAUVEAU.  1 79 

their  worth  what  it  may,  they  suited  very  well ;  and 
even  with  Moliere  they  did  not  make  such  a  bad 
figure.      Chauveau  was    associated  with  many  of   the 


Fig.  78. — Small  figure  of  Sebastien  Leclerc  for  Richesource's 
pamphlet. 

works  of  Leclerc,  who  caused  him  often  to  be  less 
heavy,  inasmuch  as  Leclerc  corrected  in  engraving 
many  of   his    compositions.     It  was  so  with    Moliere, 


l80  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

and  still  more  with  Racine  in  the  plate  of  the  Plai- 
deurs,  in  which  Chauveau  revealed  himself  a  pre- 
cursor of  the  eighteenth  century.  Unhappily  he  did 
not  always  follow  this  manner.  Successively,  and 
with  various  luck,  he  illustrated  Alaric,  Androinaquc, 
and  the  "Metamorphoses"  of  Ovid  for  Benserade,  with 
Leclerc ;  the  Pucelle  of  Chapelain,  and  the  Tragedies  of 
Racine,  to  which  Le  Brun  did  not  disdain  to  put  his 
hand. 

In  short,  the  connecting  link  between  the  begin- 
ning of  the  seventeenth  and  that  of  the  eighteenth 
century  in  the  development  of  illustration  is  Sebastien 
Leclerc.  He  had  known  the  artists  of  the  first  period ; 
he  was  to  see  at  his  death  appear  one  of  the  precursors 
of  the  vignettists  of  the  following  century,  Claude 
Gillot.  Thanks  to  him,  overburdened  titles  and  unskilful 
vignettes  underwent  a  gradual  transformation.  In 
the  delicacy  and  tenuity  of  his  designs  may  be  seen 
the  dominant  note  of  the  eighteenth  century,  coquetry, 
and  Choffard  is  divined.  He  was  nearly  the  only  one 
who  did  not  fall  into  the  exaggerations  of  the  engravers 
of  the  time ;  he  kept  beside  them  without  touching 
them,  and  preciously  preserved  his  own  well-accentuated 
personality.  By  the  smallness  and  slenderness  of  his 
figures,  Leclerc  recalls  somewhat  the  school  of  Fon- 
tainebleau  ;  but  he  is  above  all  the  reflection  of  Callot, 
a  Lorrainer  like  himself 

In  Holland,  a  Frenchman,  Bernard  Picart,  son  of 
Stephen  and  pupil  of  Leclerc,  was  making  a  great 
name  as  an  illustrator.  He  established  himself  as  a 
print-seller  at  Amsterdam  at  the  sign  of  "  L'Etoile,"  and 
successively  designed  vignettes  for  many  works,  among 


THE   BOOK   IN   ENGLAND.  l8l 

Others  the  Boileau  of  1718.  His  vignettes  and  tail- 
pieces, without  possessing  either  the  spirit  of  Leclerc 
or  the  grace  of  the  eighteenth  century,  express  an 
ingenious  and  inventive  art  that  had  broken  with  the 
strained  traditions  of  preceding  epochs. 

From  these  two  artists  the  decoration  of  the  Book 
rapidly  advanced.  The  form  is  found,  and  charming 
designers  are  not  wanting  to  apply  it. 

The  troubled  state  of  Englana  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  seventeenth  century  no  doubt  accounts  for 
the  fact  that  the  art  of  the  Book  made  but  very  little 
progress.  Theological  controversies,  the  persecutions 
by  the  Puritans,  and,  above  all,  the  great  civil  war  and 
its  antecedents  and  results,  gave  rise  to  a  flood  of 
publications  of  an  ephemeral  kind,  which  from  their 
nature  were  hurriedly  produced  ;  and  there  was  little 
room  for  pure  literature  and  art.  In  the  early  part  of 
the  century,  under  the  influence  which  Elizabeth  left, 
and  which  James  fostered,  some  important  works  were 
issued,  with  finely  engraved  illustrations  ;  but  wood 
engraving  declined  further  and  further,  until  it  was 
artistically  dead,  to  be  revived  in  the  next  century. 
The  works  of  the  numerous  poets  and  dramatists  were 
printed  in  quarto,  and  collected  editions  of  them  in 
folio.  Thus  were  issued  the  works  of  Shakespeare, 
first  collected  by  Jaggard  and  Blount,  1623,  folio,  with 
an  engraved  portrait  by  Droeshout,  the  faithfulness  of 
which  was  vouched  in  an  opposite  page  of  verse  signed 
by  Ben  Jonson.  "  Don  Quixote  "  first  appeared  in  an 
English  dress  in  1612-20,  pubHshed  by  E.  Blount  in 
quarto ;  and  Jaggard,  Blount's  partner  in  the  Shake- 
speare,   published    Boccaccio's    "  Decameron,"    in  two 


l82  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

volumes  folio,  1620.  Among  other  notable  works  of  the 
early  part  of  the  century  were  Drayton's  "  Polyolbion," 
161 3;  Chapman's  Homer,  161 1- 15,  folio,  three  volumes; 
Lord  Bacon,  whose  essays  and  other  single  publications 
appeared  in  the  seventeenth,  to  be  collected  as  his 
"  Works  "  in  the  next  century  ;  and  William  Prynne, 
whose  Histrio  Mostrix,  1633,  so  offended  Charles  I.  by 
its  references  to  the  Queen  and  the  court  ladies,  that 
the  author  had  to  undergo  a  severe  and  degrading 
punishment.  Many  of  these  works  were  illustrated 
with  meritorious  engravings  on  steel  and  copper  by 
W.  Hollar.  P.  Lombart,  W.  Marshall,  Hole,  W.  Pass, 
W.  Faithorne,  and  R.  Vaughan.  So  that  here  were  all 
the  materials  for  the  foundation  of  an  English  school, 
to  be  cruelly  broken  up  shortly  afterwards  by  the 
distractions  of  civil  warfare. 

In  161 1  Robert  Barker  first  printed  the  Authorised 
Version  of  the  Holy  Bible,  which  has  been  more  often 
reprinted  than  any  other  book,  and  which  exists  to 
this  day  as  the  great  standard  of  the  English  language. 

The  taste  for  books  of  travel  which  arose  in  the  last 
century  was  largely  increased  by  the  voyages  and 
discoveries  of  the  English  in  North  America  and  the 
subsequent  Puritan  exodus  there.  These  early  accounts 
of  Virginia  and  New  England,  many  of  which  are 
tracts  of  a  few  leaves  only,  now  command  fabulous 
prices.  The  great  collection  of  voyages  under  the  name 
of  "  Purchas  :  his  Pilgrimes,"  was  printed  in  five  folio 
volumes,  1625-6,  while  De  Bry,  Hulsius,  and  Linscho- 
ten  were  enriching  the  world  with  their  collections  of 
travels,  printed  in  Germany  and  Holland.  All  of  these 
works  were  adorned  with  finely  engraved  plates,  those 


ENGLISH  BOOKS  OF  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.  1 83 

to  "  Purchas  "  being  engraved  by  Elstrack,  and,  besides, 
it  had  a  famous  map  of  the  world,  engraved  by  Hondius, 

The  controversial  spirit  engendered  by  the  religious 
quarrels  of  the  century  and  by  the  great  civil  war 
gave  incessant  work  to  the  printers  ;  and  the  many 
tracts  and  pamphlets  thus  produced  were  frequently 
illustrated  by  rude  and  coarse  woodcuts,  of  no  value 
from  an  artistic  point  of  view,  but  curious  from  the 
indications  they  afford  of  the  costumes  and  manners 
of  the  time. 

The  first  edition  of  Walton's  "  Angler  "  was  printed 
by  R.  Marriott  in  1 65  3,  i6mo,  with  plates  in  the  text, 
engraved  on  steel  by  Lombart.  Butler's  "  Hudibras  " 
appeared  in  1663-78,  and  Milton's  "Paradise  Lost" 
in  1667,  quarto.  Fuller's  "Worthies  of  England"  was 
printed  1662,  folio.  We  have  roughly  mentioned  the 
principal  English  books  of  the  century,  and  next 
approach  the  revival  of  literature  and  art  in  the 
eighteenth  century. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    BOOK    IN    THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY. 

The  regency — Publishers  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century — 
Illustrators  in  France  ;  Gillot — The  school  of  Watteau  and 
Boucher — Cars — The  younger  Cochin ;  his  principal  works  in 
vignettes — French  art  in  England  ;  Gravelot — Eisen — Choftard — 
The  Baisers  of  Dorat ;  the  Contes  of  La  Fontaine — the  publisher 
Cazin  and  the  special  literature  of  the  eighteenth  century — 
The  younger  Moreau  and  his  illustrations — The  Revolution — The 
school  of  David — Duplessis-Bertaux — The  Book  in  Germany ;  Cho- 
dowiecki — In  England  ;  Boydell  and  French  artists — Caslon  and 
Baskerville — English  books  with  illustrations — Wood  engraving 
in  the  eighteenth  centuiy  ;  the  Papillons — Printing  offices  in  the 
eighteenth  century. 


IKE  experience   has   shown  us  in 
our  time,  but  in  another  manner, 
the   beginning  of   the   eighteenth 
century  produced,  in  the  manners 
and  tastes  of  the  French,  an  un- 
conscious  but  tenacious  reaction. 
It    seemed   as  if   the  conceptions 
of  romanticism    had    lasted    long 
enough,    and    that    the    cycle    of 
Middle  Age  chevaliers  had  passed 
away,  and  that  a  return  to  what 
is  called  nature  was  effected  in  literature  and  art.     At 
the  death  of  Louis  XIV.,  Olympus  and  its  gods,  majestic 
poses  and  suns,  had   become  wearisome.     By  a  little 


Fig.  79.  —Letter  by  Co- 
chin for  the  Memoir  es 
(f'  Artillerie  of  Suvirey  de 
St.  Remj'. 


BEGINNING   OF   THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.     1 85 

half-open  door,  gaiety  escaped  from  its  prison  and 
fled.  For  the  Book  that  door  was  the  hand  of 
Sebastien  Leclerc. 

The  ancient  school  was  replaced.  Constrained  during 
three  quarters  of  a  century,  French  manners  began  to 
be  joyous  under  the  regency  of  the  Due  d'Orleans.  If 
the  representatives  of  another  age  still  lived,  if  Rigaud 
always  painted  his  portraits  in  peruke,  there  were 
new-comers,  enlivened  by  the  new  fashions,  less 
solemn  and  more  bewitching.  Le  Brun  was  then 
far  in  the  past,  and  as  amusing  to  the  ladies  of  the 
regency  as  are  now  to  us  the  fashions  of  the  Second 
Empire. 

The  Book,  after  its  manner,  followed  the  movement, 
and  gradually  found  the  elements  of  its  decoration  in 
the  tendencies  of  the  day.  Small  sizes  were  multi- 
plied, types  showed  elegance,  and  vignettes  became 
more  and  more  agreeable  and  intellectual.  Amateurs 
had  their  ex-libris  engraved.  The  smallest  pamphlets 
were  covered  with  ornamental  letters,  vignettes,  and 
tailpieces,  already  very  clever.  Costume  also,  in  its 
shorter  and  lighter  form,  gave  to  designers  a  means 
of  agreeably  composing  a  page  of  illustration  and 
disseminating  fancy  in  the  figures.  These  revolutions 
worked  themselves  simply  from  day  to  day,  as  taste 
became  more  pronounced  and  exacting. 

The  commerce  of  the  Book  was  still  extending  from 
the  end  of  the  preceding  century  ;  and  if  the  number  of 
printers  was  limited  and  arrested  by  certain  somewhat 
hard  laws,  production  in  Paris  was  enormous.  Among 
regulations  that  weighed  most  heavily  on  publishers 
figured  the  obligation  put  upon  them  by  the  ordinance 


l86  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

of  1 71 3  to  deposit  eight  copies  of  illustrated  books.  In 
1725  the  King  issued  other  regulations  to  affirm  the 
rights  of  the  university  against  the  corporation,  forcing 
the  masters  to  assist  in  a  body  at  the  processions  of  the 
Sorbonne  and  to  offer  on  the  Day  of  the  Purification  a 
candle  to  the  rector.  In  spite  of  this  ordinance,  more 
religious  than  useful  to  commerce,  the  fashion  of  vign- 
ettes increased.  The  principal  shops  were  searched, 
as  they  are  still,  for  novelties ;  the  Rue  St.  Jacques  and 
the  Quai  des  Augustins,  where  they  were  grouped,  were 
resorted  to.  The  most  important  booksellers  in  1727 
were  Coignard,  the  Barbous — who  essayed  afterwards, 
with  Lengley  Dufresnoy,  to  copy  the  Elzevirs, — 
Cavalier,  Robustel,  Fournier,  Ballard,  and  D'Houry.  Of 
the  two  last,  D'Houry  printed  the  calendars,  and 
Ballard  had  the  privilege  for  music.  Another,  Leonord, 
published  the  books  of  the  Dauphin.  At  these  and 
other  publishers',  recent  works  were  examined,  those 
who  did  not  buy  gave  their  advice  and  took  ideas,  and 
so  fashion  slowly  formed  itself.  It  was  thus  that 
Houdart  de  la  Motte  published  with  G.  Dupuis  in  17 19 
a  collection  of  fables,  with  illustrations  of  Claude  Gillot, 
which  was  the  talk  at  the  booksellers'. 

In  this  book  all  was  original :  the  author,  who  had 
had,  five  years  before,  the  eccentric  idea  of  translating 
the  Iliad  without  knowing  a  word  of  Greek  ;  the  text, 
a  kind  of  imitation  of  La  Fontaine,  without  salt  or 
savour  ;  the  size,  quarto,  admirably  printed  by  Dupuis, 
in  the  Rue  St.  Jacques,  with  plates  by  Coy  pel, 
Masse,  and,  above  all,  the  charming  vignettes  of  Gillot, 
the  most  pleasing  and  clever  of  all  his  collaborators,  a 
sort  of  Callot  fallen  into  the  eighteenth  century,  and  who 


CLAUDE   CrlLLOT   AND   WATTEAU. 


187 


ought  to  take  the  first  place  by  birthright.  Gillot  has 
been  called,  not  without  reason,  "  the  last  pagan  of  the 
Renaissance ;  "  and  this  pagan  had  the  honour  to  give 
us  Watteau. 

The    Count  de    Caylus  tells   the   story.     Gillot  had 
quitted  the  pencil  for  the  etching  needle  on  seeing  the 


Fig.   So.  —Vignette    by   Gillot    for    the    Chien  ct   Ic    Chat,  fable  by 
Houdart  de  la  Motte,  in  1 7 19. 

work  of  his  pupil.  He  had  no  reason  to  complain  ;  his 
pictures  were  of  no  value,  and  his  prints  gave  other 
artists  the  idea  of  imitating  them.  The  whole  French 
school  of  the  eighteenth  century  may  have  had  its 
origin  in  this  forgotten  book,  illustrated  by  the  master 
of  Watteau.  In  fact,  in  the  manner  of  the  little  etching 
here   given   we  may  easily  perceive  the  coquetry  and 


l88  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

affectation  that  were  later  the  dominant  tone  of  vignettes. 
For,  it  may  well  be  said,  the  graceful,  feminine,  and  arch 
manner  of  which  we  speak  was,  above  all,  conventional 
and  false.  In  opposition  to  the  designers  and  en- 
gravers of  the  fifteenth  and  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  who  reproduced  naturally  scenes  of  daily  life  in 
ideal  conceptions,  it  came,  through  the  moral  education 
of  the  artists,  that  they  put  forth  the  ideal  in  the  most 
ordinary  things  of  life.  Shepherds  were  no  longer  the 
gross,  rustic  peasants  that  we  find  in  primitive  Flemish 
paintings  or  in  the  "  Hours  "  of  Simon  Vostre  ;  they 
were  coxcombs,  pomaded  and  adorned  with  ribbons, 
playing  the  bagpipes,  and  making  love  to  the  shep- 
herdesses of  the  court. 

At  first  it  was  Watteau  who  influenced  all  the 
engravers  in  the  pretty  and  the  smart ;  Boucher  did  the 
rest ;  and  fatally  the  Book  followed,  and  followed  im- 
petuously, surpassing,  if  possible,  the  painted  works. 
If  the  severe  poses,  the  grave  touch,  of  the  preceding 
century  are  no  longer  found,  the}^  often  go  a  little  far 
in  the  contrary  sense.  It  may  be  well  said  here  that 
the  arts  are  ordinarily  the  result  of  the  manners  of  an 
epoch.  The  system  of  Law  was  not  without  influence 
on  the  entire  eighteenth  century,  by  the  terrible  manner 
in  which  he  upset  fortunes,  awoke  appetites,  gave  rein 
to  aspirations  hitherto  held  in  check.  Claude  Gillot, 
the  designer,  was  one  of  the  first  victims  of  the  Scotch 
banker  ;  he  lost  his  fortune  on  the  Exchange  ;  but  who 
may  say  what  his  artistic  ambition  dreamed  of  in  the 
midst  of  all  these  disorders  ?  One  thing  is  certain  :  that 
Watteau,  his  pupil,  broke  oft'  very  short  with  the  style 
of  the  seventeenth  century. 


CARS THE    QUARTO    MOLIERE.  I  89 

Laurent  Cars  was  the  engraver  who  multiphed  the 
compositions  of  Boucher,  and  made  them  the  fashion. 
He  engraved  also,  after  the  painter  of  shepherds  and 
nymphs,  illustrations  to  Moliere,  the  most  agreeable 
that  there  are  for  style  and  spirit.  In  engraving  certain 
works  of  Lemoyne,  Cars  did  not  completely  desert  the 
ancient  school.  He  appears  at  the  beginning  of  th 
eighteenth  century  as  if  divided  between  two  manner 
each  equally  possible  to  him. 

The  work  of  these  engravers  was  almost  exclusively  in 
etching,  biting  with  acid  a  copper  plate  covered  with 
varnish,  on  which  the  drawing  was  made  by  means  of 
a  point.  This  process,  always  previously  used  for 
sketches,  served  also  for  finishing  vignettes,  which  up 
to  then  had  been  finished  by  the  burin.  The  supple- 
ness of  the  work  was  greater,  and  the  artist  remained 
more  himself  than  he  could  be  with  the  stiff'  cutting 
instrument  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  sizes  of  books  had  not  yet  all  come  to  octavo 
or  duodecimo.  The  works  of  Moliere  published  by 
Prault  in  1734  in  six  volumes  quarto,  under  the  direction 
of  Marc  Antoine  Joly,  give  the  idea  of  an  important 
work,  not  at  all  of  theatrical  pieces.  To  tell  the  truth, 
these  somewhat  exaggerated  dimensions  allow  artists 
more  room  for  illustration  ;  later,  when  smaller  forms 
predominated,  text  and  engravings  were  so  compressed 
that  they  were  not  always  clear  and  readable  to  every 
eye ;  but  the  quarto  was  not  graceful,  it  was  not  in 
harmony  with  the  finikin,  the  pastoral  pieces,  then 
presented,  and  it  had  to  disappear  as  a  current  size  in 
illustrated  publications. 

The  class  of  artisans  employed  on  the  Book  is  not 


190  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

identical  in  the  eighteenth  century  with  that  of  printers 
and  pubHshers.  In  the  beginning,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  cutters  of  wood  blocks  and  the  printers  were  often 
the  same  people,  preparing  their  characters  or  their 
blocks,  and  afterwards  putting  them  under  the  press. 
Large  printing  offices  had  very  quickly  changed  that. 
Each  particular  work  had  its  special  workman.  Typo- 
graphy had  its  type-founders,  compositors,  forwarders, 
inkers,  and  pressmen.  In  the  eighteenth  century  this 
was  complicated  by  designers,  engravers,  plate-printers, 
and  these  different  professions  occupied  themselves  on 
the  Book  in  manipulating  the  sheets  in  their  turn.  In 
the  midst  of  this  crowd,  the  designers  and  engravers, 
esteemed  as  was  their  collaboration,  were  not  the  most 
honoured.  Their  homes  often  reflected  the  effect  of 
their  life  as  clever  artists,  quick  to  spend  the  money 
earned  during  the  week  ;  and  we  shall  have  occasion  to 
name  some  of  the  more  miserable  among  them. 

The  booksellers,  on  the  contrary,  had  become  great 
personages.  In  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  seen 
Cramoisy  and  Vitre,  to  name  only  them,  acquire  the 
greatest  honours,  the  latter  painted  by  Philip  de  Cham- 
pagne, with  many  others  lords  of  the  court.  In  the 
eighteenth  century  there  were  Brunet,  Ballard,  Mariette, 
Chardon,  Didot,  and  a  host  of  others,  during  the 
time  of  Watteau,  Boucher,  and  Cars,  of  which  we  shall 
shortly  speak ;  and  these  several  publishers  had  houses 
of  their  own,  and  furnished  shops  and  printing  offices 
with  the  best  apparatus.  Saved  from  falling  into  neg- 
ligences by  royal  regulations  on  printing,  they  composed 
with  admirable  characters,  on  paper  of  the  first  order, 
imperishable  works  ;    and,   usual  consequence  of  their 


COCHIN. 


191 


high  situation,  they  paid  the  artists  badly  charged  with 
their  work.  It  would  be  long  and  tedious  to  enter  into 
this  matter  in  detail.  They  made  progress  by  slow 
degrees,  and  in  good  time  they  marvellously  united 
copper  plate  engraving  to  printed  text,  so  marvellously, 
that  in   comparing  their  works  to  the  wood  blocks  of 


Fig.  81. — Vignette  for  Daplniis  ct  Cliloe  by  Cochin,  for 
Coustelier's  edition. 

the  sixteenth  century,  it  may  be  asked  which  of  the 
two  styles  is  superior  in  elegance  and  good  taste. 

One  of  the  ancestors  of  this  group  of  vignettists  was 
the  younger  Cochin,  who  had  engraved  the  plate  of  the 
monks  in  the  fables  of  Houdart,  illustrated  by  Gillot. 
Cochin,  in  spite  of   his    passion  for  allegory  and   his 


192  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

very  marked  taste  for  affectation,  gave,  it  may  be  said, 
with  the  designer-engraver  St.  Aubin,  an  enormous 
impulse  to  the  art  of  adorning  books.  From  the 
beginning  of  his  career  he  worked  for  the  pubUshers, 
composing  frontispieces,  ornamented  letters,  and  tail- 
pieces, or  transferring  to  copper  the  drawings  of  others. 
Singular  type  of  artist,  besides,  educated,  well  brought 
up,  epicurean  and  spendthrift,  friend  of  great  lords,  and 
protected  by  Madame  de  Pompadour.  When  he  travelled 
in  Italy  with  her  young  brother  Abel  Poisson,  Cochin 
did  everything,  was  ready  at  the  least  request,  invent- 
ing curious  menus,  giving  representations  of  fetes,  and 
yet  finding  the  time  to  decorate  books  and  design 
vignettes  profusely. 

He  worked  chiefly  for  Jombert,  a  sort  of  learned 
bookseller.  King's  printer  for  the  artillery,  who  dates 
from  July,  1736.  Jombert  was  visited  by  painters.  He 
gave  little  private  soirees,  which  Cochin  attended, 
and  where  he  daily  made  numerous  friends.  It  was 
in  this  house,  of  so  special  a  character,  and,  it  may  be 
said,  so  little  artistic  at  first  sight,  that  Cochin  invented 
his  best  frontispieces,  among  them  that  of  the  Calciil 
DiffercnticI,  that  of  the  Astronomic  Physique,  and  the 
plates  of  the  Me'thodede  Dessin,  after  Boucher.  He  was 
one  of  the  first  to  produce  engraved  titles,  with  which 
the  publisher  Prault  ornamented  his  dainty  volumes, 
and  which  were  imitated,  up  to  the  end  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  by  all  the  illustrators  who  followed.  In 
that  to  the  works  of  Madame  Deshoulieres  the  letter 
itself  is  engraved.  Since  then  the  open  letter  has  been 
copied  in  typography.  These  vignettes  were  used  many 
times    by    publishers,    sometimes    simply    effacing    the 


COCHIN. 


193 


inscription,  sometimes  reproducing  the  original  design 
by  a  different  artist.  The  boy  with  the  swan  had 
decorated  in  1744  a  "Jerusalem  Delivered"  in   Italian, 


DESHOULIERES 


TOME  PREMIER 


A  PARIS 

C/zo-i^  Prault/z/j  Quay  cU  ^ 

CjLity 


^^^ 


Fig.   82. — Title-page  engraved  by  Fessard  after  Cochin  for  the 
works  of  Madame  Deshoiiheres.  1747. 

by  the  same  publisher,  Prault ;  it  was  then  engraved 
by  Aveline.  Fessard  engraved  the  second  plate,  which 
is  here  reproduced. 

13 


194  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

Nearly  all  the  frontispieces  of  the  Book  with  vignettes 
of  the  eighteenth  century  preserve  this  arrangement : 
an  ornamented  and  draped  border,  with  garlands  of 
roses,  symbols,  and  cupids,  in  the  middle  the  title,  in 
red  and  black,  composed  in  open  letter,  often  a  scroll 
with  the  address  of  the  publisher,  but  rarely  a  mark. 
It  was  the  time  of  little  winged  cupids,  goddesses,  and 
gods.  The  goddesses  were  the  favourites  of  the  kings, 
Madame  de  Pompadour  or  the  princesses,  but  rarely 
the  virtuous  Marie  Leczinska,  too  homely  and  too  much 
ignored  to  tempt  the  artists ;  the  kings  or  the  princes 
were  the  gods. 

After  Jombert,  Prault,  and  Coustellier,  Cochin  worked 
for  Francois  Didot,  syndic  of  the  printers,  for  whom  he 
prepared  a  set  of  illustrations  to  Moliere.  Unfortu- 
nately Didot  died  in  1757,  and  the  project  fell  with  him. 
Of  the  work  of  Cochin  there  only  remains  the  set  of 
Tartiifc  etchings  in  octavo. 

In  the  vortex  into  which  he  was  plunged,  he  succes- 
sively illustrated  the  works  of  Rousseau,  published  at 
Brussels,  quarto  ;  those  of  Boileau,  published  by  David 
and  Durand,  octavo;  and  Renault's  "History  of  France," 
in  the  same  size,  with  numerous  vignettes.  One  of  these 
should  be  noted  in  a  book  treating  of  printing ;  it  is 
that  in  which  Cochin  pretends  to  show  to  his  contem- 
poraries the  interior  of  a  workshop  in  1470.  Without 
doubt  the  sketch  of  this  print  was  taken  in  one  of  the 
houses  frequented  b}-  him — at  Jombert's,  Didot's,  or 
David  and  Durand's — for  that  room  in  which  compositors 
are  working  and  printed  sheets  drying  was  not  an 
invention  of  Cochin,  and  served  to  reproduce  a  printing 
office  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


Fig.  83. — Vignette  taken  from  P.  Corneille's  Tlu'dtre,  by  Gravelot. 


196  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

With  Cochin  soon  worked  a  number  of  designers  and 
aqua-fortists,  too  prudent  to  lose  the  opportunity.     The 
fashion  arrived    for  books  beribboned,   festooned,   and 
flowered.      Hubert   Francois   Gravelot   had   carried   to 
London  this  style   of  new  works,  which   he  knew  how 
to  decorate,  in  his  manner,  better  than  any  one,  with 
letters,   figures,   and   tailpieces.       He   did  not  engrave 
much  himself,   leaving   this  work  to  lesser  artists,  and 
contenting  himself  with  subtle  invention  and  graceful 
subjects.     With  Eisen,  Cochin,  and  Moreau,  he  is  the 
French   artist  in  the  sense  of  the  time,  free,  bold,  and 
ingenious,  but  perhaps  a  little  out  of  place  in  England. 
He  pubHshed  his  plates  to  the  "  Decameron"  in  1757,  one 
of  the  most  curious  of  his  sets  of  plates,  and  a  hundred 
various  vignettes.    On  his  return  to  France  he  designed 
the  Theatre  of  P.  Corneille,  from  which  the   Galerie  de 
Palais  is  here  reproduced,  on  account  of  the  illustration 
of  bookselling  which  it  gives.     In   1764  the  large  salon 
of   the  Palace   was   still,   as   in   the   time  of  Abraham 
Bosse,  a  place  where  shops  were  fitted  up  and  the  new 
books  discussed.     Side  by  side  with  the  dressmakers 
and  merchants  of  every  categor}^,  the  bookseller  offers  to 
his  customer  the  recent  products  of  Parisian  presses. 
Certain  works  were  sold  under  cover  and  not  shown ; 
there  is  here   something   to   pique  the  curiosity  of  un- 
occupied young  men  who  strolled  about  and  prolonged 
their  stay  in  the  galleries. 

Eisen  has  a  simplicity,  a  good  taste,  and  a  special  and 
singularly  perfect  economy  of  artistic  effect  combined 
with  typography.  It  appears  hard  that  the  designer 
had  no  consultative  voice  in  the  choice  of  impression  and 
disposition  of  the  Book.     The  union  of  the  two  forces. 


the  vignette  and  the  com- 
position, is  so  close  that  it  may  be 
believed  one  was  made  for  the  other, 
neither  venturing  to  assert  itself.  In 
the  pretty  and  elaborate  inventions 
of  the  artists  reigned  a  lackadaisical 
affectation  that  was  delightfully  be- 
coming ;  the  rock-work,  which  it  still 
had,  suited  admirably  the  borders 
of  the  first  page.  The  Lcttres  d'line 
Peruvtenne  has  a  very  agreeable  title, 
but  little  different,  on  the  whole,  from 
that  of  Madame  Deshoulieres,  by 
Cochin.  It  is  the  same  with  the 
Lcttres  Turqucs,  published  at  Amster- 
dam in  1750,  and  generall}^  in  all 
the  frontispieces  signed  by  him.  As 
to  the  other  decorations  of  the  Book, 


M 


Fig.  84. — Border  designed  by  Choffard  in  1758. 


198  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

there  were  also  a  number  of  ingenious  artists,  confus- 
ing cupids  and  flowers,  imposing  blazons,  delighting 
in  playing  with  accumulated  difficulties.  Under  this 
assuredly  involuntary  but  real  direction,  publications 
attained  proportions  of  luxury  and  coquetry  until  then 
unknown.  The  volume  of  Baiscrs  of  Dorat  would  not 
have  lived  but  for  Eisen  and  the  delightful  fancies  with 
which  he  adorned  it. 

At  the  same  time,  we  find  Choffard,  another  designer 
and  etcher  of  much  repute,  and  sought  after  by  the 
booksellers.  Under  his  pencil  the  vignette  became  a 
chef-d'oeuvre,  the  tailpiece  was  a  delightful  compound  of 
judicious  and  sportive  ornament,  the  taste  for  which 
grew  more  and  more.  From  delicate  foliage  are  sus- 
pended roses,  shepherds'  pipes,  lyres,  and  zithers. 
With  the  zephyrs  scrolls  or  ribbons  float,  carried  by 
winged  cupids.  The  initial  letters  are  real  pictures, 
of  such  fineness  and  precision  that  the  difficulties  of 
their  reproduction  prevent  us  from  putting  them  before 
the  reader. 

When  the  fcrmicrs  gencraiix,  those  great  amateur 
financiers  of  the  last  century,  conceived  the  idea  of  an 
edition  of  the  Contcs  of  La  Fontaine  at  their  expense, 
their  eyes  naturally  fell  upon  the  artists  best  prepared 
to  illustrate  the  inimitable  fancies  of  the  great  poet, 
Eisen  and  Chofifard.  The  first  had  for  his  task  the  com- 
position of  the  plates,  Chofifard  the  general  decoration. 
Ficquet  was  added  for  the  portrait  of  the  bonJioiuinc  La 
Fontaine — Ficquet,  whose  specialty  in  this  genre  was 
dazzling  in  its  delicacy  and  spirit ;  Diderot  wrote  a  short 
introduction ;  the  composition  was  confided  to  a  printer 
of  the  first  order,  and  it  was  put  on  sale  by  Barbou. 


LA   FONTAINE'S   TALES. 


199 


It  is  not  a  book  to  be  recommended  from  a  moral 
point  of  view,  but  the  typographical  art,  joined  to  that 
of  designers  and  engravers,  never  obtained  a  more  com- 


Fig.   85.  — Vignette    by    Eisen   for  the    Qitiproquo  in  the  Conies  of 
La  Fontaine,  in  the  edition  o{  the  fcriiiiers  gc'iuraiix. 

plete  success  :  the  size  in  octavo,  the  impression  clear, 
united  with  the  dimensions  of  the  plates  in  a  harmo- 
nious elegance,  well  calculated  to  please  the  three  rich 


200  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

personages  and  the  jo^'ous  amateurs  to  whom  the 
Conks  address  themselves.  True,  Eisen  has  dressed 
the  greater  part  of  the  characters  in  the  costume  of  his 
time,  which  is  a  little  hurtful  to  one's  feelings  to-da}' ; 
it  may  be  imagined,  however,  that  it  was  La  Fontaine 
who  was  mistaken,  so  that  these  delicate,  risky  tales 
appear  to  be  created  for  the  seigneurs  of  the  time  of 
Louis  XV. 

All  the  special  literature  sought  for  then  by  rich 
people  had  not  the  value  of  the  Contes.  There  was  at 
Rheims  a  person,  who  has  to-da}^  become  the  mode,  as  he 
was  in  the  time  of  Louis  XVI.,  who  sold  undercover  a 
quantity  of  licentious  books  of  the  better  kind,  adorned 
with  figures  by  Eisen,  Marillier,  or  Cochin  ;  this  was 
Cazin,  an  artist  in  his  way,  but  whose  good  name 
suffered  under  a  scandalous  trial.  An  order  of  the 
Council  of  State  in  1764  enjoined  him  to  cease  his  trade 
in  the  Place  Royale  at  Rheims,  where  he  sold  his 
particular  merchandise.  It  appears  that  the  sentence 
was  not  without  appeal,  for  we  find  Cazin  at  Paris 
about  1785.  He  was  one  of  those  who  were  ruined 
by  the  Revolution,  after  he  had  popularised  the 
editions  known  as  Pctits  Formats,  printed  b}'  Valade,  of 
Paris. 

We  have  come  to  the  most  beautiful  illustrated  books 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  to  the  illustrious  artists 
of  whom  we  shall  speak  in  good  time  should  be  added 
the  younger  Moreau  and  St.  Aubin,  the  former  nephew 
by  marriage  of  the  publisher  Prault,  and  therefrom  a 
decorator  of  the  Book,  the  other  thrown  by  Gravelot 
into  full  work,  and  rapidly  becoming  the  most  subtle 
and  adroit  of  the  etchers  of  the  time.      Moreau  did  not 


THE   YOUNGER    MOREAU. 


201 


wait  long  after  his  marriage  before  setting  to  work.  He 
began  with  ornaments  destined  for  the  Histoirc  dc  France 
of  President  Henault ;  then  he  composed,  in  his  own 
personal  manner,  titles  and  tailpieces  for  his  uncle.  In 
the  Book  he  is  the  propagator  of  garlands  of  roses,  which 
he  grouped  with  an  ideal  grace  ;  he  twined  them  in  the 
borders  of  his  frontispieces,  and  put  them  judiciously 


FRAUL-X,  FILS 


Siiay  des 


la  ()M.r/iU//c  Boi/tii]tn:  ajn^j  la  rm: 


Gihlt: 


Ei  Eij. 


am:  arncj  ui  rut:  u-uru-c-ceiu. 

T'end  trmizJ  ■rjjtzj  ddLiJri^*,i^iJ  dd  Fraiux  (ttie  Oed  Riu^ 

mJcf^.H  uraJ-^ml/U'-tzndeJ  Ui  ineilUuro  iruceJ  lyut  j-i 
jiTuaitJur  te^  diffrrfiiJ 'n>eirtr<:J  _  tP  Uj   vend  Sffarenmn 
Jl  arr.aiJi  l,:jJijlfiiotJitiTiiiJ  .   <.^it  Jej    Calnhaucrt^' 
ciinJi  ifiu  dcJ  PraciJ  ctdeJ  fe/r&a 


Fig.  86.-- Card  of  the  publisher  PrauU,  uncle  by  marriage  ot 
Moreau  le  Jeune. 

in  his  tailpieces.  He  excelled  in  inventing  subjects 
referring  to  the  text  which  were  not  commonplace 
ornaments  suitable  for  anything.  The  tailpiece  on 
p.  202,  taken  from  the  works  of  Moliere,  brings  forcibly 
to  mind  the  Mc'dccin  inalgir  Liti,  with  its  wood-cutter 
unmercifully  beaten  with  sticks  and  muffled  in  a  scientific 
robe.      It    is    the    same    with    other    illustrations,    that 


202 


THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 


cannot  be  displaced  from  the  position  assigned  to  them 
by  the  artist  without  disappointment. 

The  year  1773,  which  saw  the  publication  by  De 
Bret  of  the  works  of  Moliere,  may  perhaps  be  considered 
as  that  in  which  the  French  Book  of  the  eighteenth 
century  reached  its  culminating  point.  M.  de  Laborde, 
first  valet  de  chambre  of  the  King  and  governor  of  the 
Louvre,  published  with  De  Lormel,  printer  to  the 
Academy  of  Music,  his  celebrated  collection  of  Chansons, 


Hg.    87. —Tailpiece    from   the   Me'decin   nialgrc   Lui,   by 
Moreau   le   Jeune. 


dedicated  to  the  young  Dauphiness  Marie  Antoinette, 
and  partly  illustrated  by  the  younger  Moreau.  The  work 
is  exquisite,  of  powerful  yet  simple  grace.  The  senti- 
mental note  of  the  century  was  struck  in  it,  the  insipid 
love  of  shepherdesses  there  tenderly  sighed,  and  the 
designer  has  delightfully  rendered  this  arch  side  of  the 
pastoral  song. 

Our  task  does  not  permit  us  to  linger  over  the  works 
of  this  prodigious  and  charming  artist,  but  we  must  men- 
tion his  inimitable  plates  to  J.  J.   Rousseau,   the  finest 


FRENCH  ARTISTS  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.   203 


and  most  agreeable  of  his  compositions  and  vignettes, 
also  his  chef-d'criivrc,  the  Histoirc  die  Costiune. 

As  evidencing  the  activity  of  French  artists  of  the 


Fig.  88.  —  Vignette  of  the   "Pardon  Obtenu/'  designed   bj'  Morcau 
le  Jeune,  for  Laborde's  Chansons,  in  1773. 

Book  in  the  eighteenth  century,  we  cite  the  number  of 
works  illustrated  by  the  respective  artists  enumerated 
in  the  last  edition  of  M.  H.  Cohen's  valuable  Guide 
dc  V Amateur  de  Livrcs  a  Gravurcs  du  XVI IP  Sicdc :  - 


204 


THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 


Aliamet,   34. 
Audran,    16. 
Aveline,   ^t,. 
Baquoy,  8y. 
Basan,  9. 
Binet,  48. 
Borel,  29. 
Boucher,  47. 
Bovinet,  34. 
Cars,    13. 
Chedel,  21. 
Chenu,    18. 
Chofifard,  50. 
Cochin,  143. 
Coypel,  24. 
Dambrun,  77. 
Delaunay,  N.,  95. 
Dehgnon,  50. 
Delvaux,  66. 
Duclos,  49. 
Duflos,  56. 
Dunker,  15. 
Duplessis-  Bertaux, 

22. 
Eisen,  135. 
Elluin,  14. 
Fessard,  E.,  69. 
Ficquet,  14. 
Fhpart,  24. 
Fokke,  14. 
Folkema,  17. 
Fragonard,  10. 


Freudeberg,  7. 
Gaucher,  55. 
Ghendt,  78. 
Godefroy,  29. 
Gravelot,  86. 
Grignion,  13. 
Gutenberg,  20. 
Halbou,  58. 
Helman,  22. 
Ingouf,  18. 
Langlois,  18. 
Le  Barbier,  54. 
Le  Bas,  39. 
Lebran,  21. 
Leclerc,  1 1. 
Legrand,  45. 
Lemire,  //. 
Lempereur,  68. 
Leveau,  31. 
Longueil,  97. 
MariUier,  1 16. 
Martinet,  27. 
Masquelier,  42. 
Massard,  40. 
Monnet,  6/. 
Monsiau,  22. 
Moreau,  138. 
Nee,  48. 
Pasquier,  18. 
Patas,  65. 
Pauquet,  23. 
Petit,  23. 


THE   ART   OF   THE   REVOLUTION.  205 


Picart,  62. 
Ponce,  65. 
Prevost,  40. 
Prud'hon,  14. 
Queverdo,  54. 
Rigaud,  18. 
Roger,  17. 
Romanet,  26. 


Rousseau,  24. 
St.  Aubin,  70. 
Scotin,  27. 
Seve,  29. 
Slmonet,  83. 
Tardieu,  64. 
Tilliard,  15. 
Triere,  39. 


Doubtless  some  of  these  ascriptions  are  for  frontis- 
pieces only,  but  as  a  list  of  the  principal  book  illus- 
trators of  the  time,  and  as  showing  the  measure  of 
their  popularity,  this  table  is  of  much  interest. 

With  the  Revolution  the  decline  of  the  Book  arrives, 
as  that  of  all  the  arts.  Moreau,  friend  of  David,  had 
become  affected  by  the  new  ideas  and  the  burlesque 
renaissance  of  Greek  and  Roman  art.  He  made  his 
apology  on  the  altar  of  the  gods,  and  engraved  por- 
traits on  wood  to  punish  himself  for  having  painted  the 
elegancies  of  fallen  tyrants.  At  this  game,  nerve,  as 
well  as  suppleness,  was  lost  ;  and  if  he  had  had  only 
the  artistic  knack  of  the  Revolution,  his  daughter, 
married  to  Charles  Vernet,  could  not  have  written  of 
him,  "That  which  can  be  most  admired  is,  at  the 
same  time,  the  fecundity  and  flexibility  of  Moreau's 
talent,  that  marvellous  facility  of  conceiving  a  pic- 
turesque scene  and  disposing  it  in  an  interesting  and 
truthful  manner  in  the  least  extended  space."  This 
was  true  before,  but  after  ? 

In  spite  of  his  passion  for  the  ideas  and  men  of  the 
Revolution,  Moreau  found  himself  at  the  end  of  his 
resources.     Renouard,   the  publisher,  received  him  as 


206  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

he  had  received  St.  Aubin,  to  whom  he  advanced  sum 
after  sum  to  prevent  him  dying  of  hunger.  Like 
most  of  his  contemporaries,  Moreau,  pressed  by  want, 
"took,  quitted,  and  retook  the  cuirass  and  the  hair- 
shirt."  He  had  drawn  for  everybody  :  for  Louis  X\^L, 
for  the  Repubhc,  for  Napoleon  L 

The  worst  of  it  is  that  after  his  designs  for  Ovid, 
Moliere,  and  Rousseau,  dating  from  the  reign  of 
Louis  XVL,  he  should  have  done  them  again  in  1804, 
1806,  and  1808.  The  difference  was  great,  even  pro- 
bably for  his  publishers,  Renouard  and  Dupreel.  It 
does  not  appear  that  the  pontiff  of  the  new  school, 
David,  knew  of  his  distress  ;  and  Moreau  succumbed 
in  1 8 14  to  a  cancerous  scirrhus  of  the  right  arm,  for- 
gotten and  in  the  greatest  misery. 

We  have  passed  a  little  quickly  to  the  end  of  the 
century  because  it  is  of  no  importance  to  name  each  of 
the  publishers  and  artists,  but  only  to  sketch  briefly 
their  tastes  or  their  manner.  We  have  not  dwelt  long 
on  the  engravers  so  called,  because  of  their  number  ; 
but  their  dexterity  remains  proverbial  ;  they  handled 
etching  with  extreme  suppleness,  and  often  interpreted 
the  drawings  of  illustrators  in  remitting  them  to  the 
needle.  Many  of  these,  not  to  say  all,  made  use  them- 
selves of  the  etching  needle,  St.  Aubin  for  example,  who 
knew  how  to  give  to  the  work  of  others  his  personal 
mark  and  distinction. 

The  Revolution  passed  over  some  among  those 
that  it  ruined,  and,  as  stated  above,  they  followed  the 
movement,  and  lost  themselves  in  the  school  of  David. 
It  was  Duplessis-Bertaux  who,  after  having  furnished 
to  Cazin,  the   publisher,   vignettes   for  his  Rcaicil  dcs 


'Chez  LAUREIf  T  PRAtJLT ,  LiWaire  ,  Quai 
des  Anguffins ,  au  com  de  la  rue  Git  le  Coeur 
alaSonrce  des   Sciences- 


'Fis;.  89. — Title  designed  by  Moreau  le  Jeune  in   1769  for  the 
publisher  Prault. 


2o8  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

Meillenrs  Contcs  en  Vers,  1778,  and  man}'  other  books, 
after  having  worked  for  Didot,  devoted  himself  to 
patriotic  engraving  and  to  the  reproduction  of  scenes 
of  the  Revolution.  When  he  published  his  Tableaux 
Historiqiies,  in  three  volumes  folio,  adorned  with  nearly 
two  hundred  large  plates,  it  was  under  the  Consulate, 
that  is  to  say  far  from  the  time  when  the  work  was 
begun.  Renouvier  assures  us,  with  his  exclusive  disdain 
for  the  eighteenth  century,  that  Duplessis-Bertaux  was  a 
mystifier,  and  that  his  scenes  of  the  Revolution  were 
a  hoax,  "  in  the  kind  of  spirit  in  vogue  under  the 
Directory."  The  truth  is  that  the  artist,  in  place  of 
being  a  cheerful  Callot,  as  might  be  thought  from  his 
manner  of  engraving,  so  like  that  of  the  Lorraine  artist, 
was  imbued  with  the  emphatic  and  exaggerated  impres- 
sions of  the  first  Republic,  its  sans-cnlottes  in  the  poses 
of  the  Sabines  and  its  tricofeuscs  apeing  Penelope. 

The  immense  artistic  advance  made  in  France  in 
the  eighteenth  century  in  the  manufacture  and  illus- 
tration of  the  Book  made  itself  felt  throughout  Europe. 
In  Germany,  Chodowiecki,  born  at  Dantzic  of  a  family 
of  apothecaries,  developed  his  talent  from  ornamenting 
the  boxes  of  his  father,  and  from  1758  to  1794  he 
designed  numerous  plates  for  books  and  almanacs, 
a  little  heavy  in  engraving,  but  singularly  clever  in 
composition.  There  were  a  few  others  also  designing, 
and  Kilian,  Folkema,  and  Ridinger  produced  some  fine 
engravings,  but  the  Book  did  not  make  so  much  pro- 
gress in  Germany  as  in  France  and  England. 

In  England  a  vast  improvement  was  manifested. 
Fine  types  were  cast  by  Baskerville  and  Caslon  ;  print- 
ing machines  were  perfected.    The  illustration  of  books 


ENGLISH   BOOKS   OF   THE    i8TH   CENTURY.      209 

by  engraved  plates  was  in  the  first  half  of  the  century 
almost  entirely  done  by  foreigners,  but  an  English 
school  was  arising,  which  attained  perfection  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  and  first  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Wood  engraving  also,  which,  with 
the  exception  of  blocks  for  head  and  tailpieces,  had 
become  almost  a  lost  art,  was  revived  by  Bewick,  to 
become  later  one  of  the  chief  adornments  of  the  Book. 

Before  17 16  English  printers  obtained  their  best 
founts  of  type  from  Holland,  but  the  establishment 
of  the  Caslon  foundry  rendered  them  independent. 
William  Caslon,  the  first  great  English  type-founder, 
was  born  1692,  and  died  1766.  The  foundry  still  exists, 
pre-eminent  in  the  beauty  of  its  characters.  Baskerville 
established  a  foundry  about  1750,  and  printed  at 
Birmingham  with  his  own  types  a  number  of  extremely 
beautiful  books.  The  impetus  given  to  fine  printing 
by  these  two  men  rapidly  spread  itself,  and  laid  the 
foundation  of  the  perfection  which  English  book- 
making  reached. 

As  mentioned  above,  Gravelot  illustrated  many 
English  books  in  the  early  part  of  the  century.  He 
designed  a  set  of  plates  to  Shakespeare  in  i2mo, 
1740,  and  another  in  quarto,  1744,  besides  numerous 
frontispieces  and  other  plates  in  all  kinds  of  books. 
Among  other  foreigners  who  engraved  for  English 
publishers  were  Grignion,  Kip,  Van  der  Gucht,  Hou- 
braken,  and  Bartolozzi.  Bartolozzi,  who  was  very  pro- 
lific in  the  production  of  engraved  plates,  may  perhaps 
be  called  the  founder  of  that  great  English  school  of 
engraving  which  arose  with  the  establishment  of  the 
Royal  Academy  in    1769  and  the  encouragement  given 

14 


2IO  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

by  Alderman  Boydell.  Houbraken  and  Vertue  en- 
graved a  set  of  fine  portraits  in  folio  for  Rapin's 
"History  of  England,"  1736;  William  Hogarth  de- 
signed plates  for  Butler's  "  Hudibras,"  1744 ;  and 
among  other  curiosities  of  English  engraving  before 
1750  were  Sturt's  edition  of  the  Common  Prayer, 
entirely  engraved  on  copper  plates,  171 7,  and  an 
edition  of  Horace  entirely  engraved  by  Pine,  1733. 
That  the  taste  for  illustrated  books  soon  grew  to  be 
great  is  evidenced  by  the  publication  of  such  expensive 
works  as  Boydell's  edition  of  Shakespeare,  in  nine 
volumes  folio,  commenced  in  1791,  and  adorned  with 
a  hundred  plates  from  pictures  specially  commissioned 
by  the  spirited  publisher ;  Claude's  Liber  Veritatis,  with 
three  hundred  engravings  by  Richard  Earlom  1777, 
Sir  Robert  Strange's  engravings  of  fifty  historical 
prints  about  1750,  collections  of  views  in  Great  Britain 
by  Kip,  Buck,  and  Boydell ;  Holbein's  ''  Collection  of 
Portraits"  1792,  a  hundred  and  fifty  plates  to 
Shakespeare  engraved  by  S.  and  E.  Harding  1793, 
all  of  which  cost  great  sums  to  produce,  and  greatl}' 
contributed  to  the  elevation  of  public  taste.  Among 
the  artists  of  the  latter  half  of  the  century  who  con- 
tributed to  the  decoration  of  the  Book  are  Thomas 
Stothard,  whose  very  beautiful  designs,  extending  into 
the  next  century,  excelled  those  of  all  his  contemporaries 
in  their  grace  and  spirit  ;  Robert  Smirke,  best  known  by 
his  plates  for  Shakespeare,  "  Don  Quixote,"  and  "  Gil 
Bias;"  Burney ;  and  Richard  Westall.  It  may  be  said 
generally  that  the  English  books  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury were  of  a  more  solid  character  than  the  French, 
although  English  art,  especially  in  the  decoration  of  the 


REVIVAL   OF   WOOD   ENGRAVING.  211 

Book,  owes  much  to  French  initiation.  It  is  curious 
to  read  now  the  opinion  of  a  contemporary  French 
engraver  on  English  art.  Choffard,  in  the  preface 
to  Basan's  Dictioiuiairc  I'J^'j,  wrote,  "They"  (the 
Enghsh),  "  having  been  supported  by  some  foreign 
talent,  are  trying  to  create  talent  among  themselves  ; 
but  they  have  not  seized  the  flame  of  genius  that 
vivifies  all  art  in  France." 


Fig.   90. — Tailpiece  engraved  on  wood  by  John  Baptist  Papillon 
(before  1766). 

However,  what  had  become  of  engraving  by  cutting 
in  reverse,  the  figure  in  relief,  from  which  printing 
could  be  done  ?  It  had,  we  may  think,  nearly  dis- 
appeared in  the  midst  of  the  continued  invasion  of  the 
burin  and  etching.  It  only  appeared  from  time  to  time 
in  head  and  tailpieces,  remaining  purely  typographical 
and  lost  in  other  decorations.  There  were  always 
wood  engravers,  not  very  clever,  capable  only  of  work- 
ing simple  lines  without  charm.     One  of  them  resolved 


212  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

to  resuscitate  the  art,  and  made  various  attempts  about 
the  end  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  and  beginning  of 
that  of  Louis  XV.  He  was  named  John  Papillon,  and 
was  born  at  St.  Quentin  in  i66i.  His  experiments 
did  not  go  beyond  a  book  of  prayers,  with  thirty-six 
figures  in  rehef  after  Sebastien  Leclerc.  His  son,  John 
Baptist,  succeeded  him,  and  continued  to  engrave 
without  ceasing  subjects  of  ornament,  letters,  often 
tailpieces,  of  a  good  style  upon  the  whole,  and  taking 
an  excellent  place  in  an  elaborate  book.  Unfortunately, 
grace  had  fled ;  the  processes  that  the  practitioners 
exhibited  one  after  the  other  were  lost  ;  and  the 
Papillons  reconstituted,  we  may  say,  a  vanished  art. 
John  Baptist  also  published  in  1766  a  theoretical 
treatise  on  wood  engraving,  abounding  in  historical 
errors,  but  in  which  something  to  learn  may  be  found 
if  taken  with  discernment.  He  says  in  his  preface, 
"  Now  that  excellent  work  is  done  on  copper,  wood 
engraving  is  neglected,  and  the  use  lost  of  designing 
and  cutting  the  shadows  of  the  pencil  on  the  wood 
block  ;  most  of  those  who  work  in  it  have  neither  design 
nor  taste,  and  only  follow  their  own  ideas ;  it  is  not 
astonishing  that  only  very  mediocre  pieces  come  from 
their  hands,  to  say  nothing  stronger ;  the  profound 
ignorance  of  nearly  all  who  meddle  with  it  contrives 
more  and  more  to  destroy  the  beauties  of  this  art  in 
which  many  people  find  neither  pleasure  nor  grace. 
To  obviate  all  this,  if  it  be  possible  to  me,  I  have  under- 
taken to  give  my  precepts  and  observations  to  those 
who  wish  to  apply  themselves  to  my  engraving." 

It  was  probably  the  essays  of  Papillon  that  provoked 
curious  experiments  on  the  part  of  other  wood  engravers. 


ENGRAVING   IN   RELIEF. 


213 


Duplat,  at  the  beginning  of  this  century,  proposed  to 
prepare  a  reh'ef  on  stone,  and  as  this  would  be  broken 
under  pressure,  he  invented  a  mould  ;  that  is  to  say, 
he  took  a  leaden  matrix  from  the  stone  cutting,  and 
ran  a  resistant  metal  into  this  mould,  thus  obtaining 
a  relief  similar  to  the  stone.  Renouard,  the  publisher, 
made  the  trials  ;  and  the  younger  Moreau  made  the 
designs.  Moreau  become  an  essayer  of  processes  in 
1811  !     One  of   the    plates   of   La    Fontaine's    Fables, 


Fig.  91. —  Experiment  in  engraving  in  relief  by  Moreau  le  Jeune 
for  Renouard's  edition  of  La  Fontaine's  Fables. 


published  by  Renouard  in  1812,  in  two  volumes,  i2mo, 
is  here  reproduced. 

It  appears,  however,  that  the  publisher  was  thwarted 
by  bad  printing.  The  printers  of  Didot  or  Mame, 
much  as  they  consecrated  all  their  care  to  it,  did  not 
yet  know  perfect  workmanship  ;  they  put  the  most 
intense  blacks  into  fine  sheets.  The  great  publishers 
trusted  that  better  days  would  leave  to  more  clever 
men  the  task  of  perfecting  the  invention. 

Wood  engraving  owes  its  revival  and  almost  perfec- 


214 


THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 


tion  in  England    to    Thomas    Bewick,    who    published 
his  first  work  in  1770,  his  "  General  History  of  Quad- 


Fig.  92. — Portrait  of  Thomas  Bewick. 

rupeds  "  1 790,  and  his  "  Birds  "  1797.  In  these  works 
he  not  only  depicted  his  subjects  with  the  most  scrupu- 
lous fidelity,  but  in  the  tailpieces  of  the  several  chapters 


FRENCH    OFFICIAL    PRINTING    OFFICES.         21 5 

he  drew  the  most  quaint,  humorous,  and  faithful 
representations  of  country  Ufe.  He,  with  his  brother, 
John  Bewick,  and  their  pupils,  among  whom  was  Luke 
Clennell,  had  an  influence  upon  English  art  and  the 
decoration  of  the  Book  in  England  which  exists  to  our 
day.  Not  alone  with  us,  for  he  may  be  said  to  have 
repaid  the  debt  which  we  owed  to  France  for  her 
illustrated  books  of  the  eighteenth  century  by  stimu- 
lating the  art  of  wood  engraving,  which  was  practised 
by  Tony  Johannot  and  the  other  illustrators  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

To  return  to  the  eighteenth  century,  with  which  this 
chapter  is  specially  occupied,  we  have  said  that  the  Royal 
Printing  House,  after  various  fortunes,  still  existed  ; 
and  'in  1788  it  worked,  for  better  or  for  worse,  at  the 
Louvre.  According  to  the  budget  of  that  year,  it  cost 
the  King  90,000  livres,  of  which  the  director  had  1,400. 

There  were,  on  the  other  hand,  a  certain  number  of 
official  printing  offices,  that  of  war,  for  example,  which 
was  devoted  entirely  to  the  work  of  the  Ministry.  It 
was  situated  at  Versailles,  and  was  created  in  1768.  It 
is  told  of  Louis  XV.  that,  being  one  day  in  this 
workshop,  he  found  a  pair  of  spectacles,  left  as  if  in 
inadvertence  on  a  printed  sheet.  As  his  sight  was 
weakening,  he  took  the  spectacles  and  looked  through 
them.  The  sheet  was  a  hyperbolical  eulogium  com- 
posed, as  if  at  random,  by  the  director  Bertier,  in 
honour  of  the  King.  Louis  XV.,  having  read  the 
dithyramb,  replaced  the  spectacles,  and  quietly  said, 
"  They  are  too  strong ;  they  make  objects  too  large." 

Who  would  believe  that  at  the  end  of  the  century 
of  Voltaire  and  Rousseau  a  craftsman  would  be  found 


2l6  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

desirous  of  leading  back  the  typographical  art  to  its 
cradle,  and  of  making  xylographs  again,  under  the 
name  of  polytypes  ?  A  German  was  the  original  who 
conceived  the  plan.  He  obtained  an  order  of  council  for 
the  establishment  of  his  presses  in  1785,  but  the  same 
council  suppressed  them  ist  November,  1787.  His 
process  was  to  substitute  for  movable  characters  a 
plate  of  fixed  letters,  and  probably  engraved. 

Another  eccentricity  of  typography  at  the  end  of  the 
century  was  the  introduction  of  "  logography  "  by  John 
Walter,  the  proprietor  and  printer  of  the  Times  news- 
paper, which  consisted  in  casting  whole  the  words  in 
most  common  use,  in  place  of  separate  letters.  The 
system  had  soon  to  be  abandoned,  but  the  early  numbers 
of  the  Times,  which  was  started  January  ist,  1785,  were 
printed  on  it. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  there  was  a  printing  estab- 
lishment for  each  of  the  constituted  bodies  ;  the  King, 
the  Queen,  the  princes,  each  had  their  own.  The  royal 
lottery  occupied  a  special  printing  house. 

The  young  inmates  of  the  blind  asylum  worked 
under  the  direction  of  M.  Clousier,  royal  printer. 
Louis  XVI.  authorised  the  celebrated  Haiiy,  their 
master,  to  allow  them  to  print ;  and  in  1786  they  com- 
posed an  essay  on  the  education  of  the  blind.  Pierre 
Francois  Didot  was  in  1785  printer  to  the  Prince, 
afterwards  Louis  XVIII. ;  and  he  published  the 
Aventtires  de  Telcmaqiic,  in  two  quarto  volumes,  from 
this  special  printing  office. 

The  English  colonies  in  North  America  early  estab- 
lished printing  there,  their  first  book,  the  "  Book  of 
Psalms,"  known  as  the  Bay  Psalm   Book,  being  dated 


PRINTING   IN   AMERICA. 


217 


1640.  By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  hte- 
rature  held  a  strong  position  in  the  colonies,  the  greater 
part  of  it  being,  as  might  be  expected,  English  ;  but  the 
revolution  and  subsequent  establishment  of  the  United 
States  created  a  national  American  literature,  which  has 
flourished  to  this  day.  Among  the  printers  of  North 
America  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the  most  famous 
was  the  celebrated  philosopher  Dr.  Benjamin  Franklin, 
who  served  his  apprenticeship  to  the  printing  press  in 
London.  He  returned  to  America  in  1726,  and  worked, 
as  a  printer  with  his  brother  at  Philadelphia. 


CHAPTER   VI. 


THE    BOOK    IN    THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY. 

The  Didots  and  their  improvements— The  folio  Racine— The  school  of 
Didot — Fine  publications  in  England  and  Germany — Literature 
and  art  of  the  Restoration  Romanticism — Wood  engraving — 
Bewick's  pupils,  Clennell,  etc.— The  illustrators  of  romances-  The 
generation  of  1840— The  Book  in  our  days  in  Europe  and 
America. 

OLITICAL  imitators  had  not  been 
found  for  the  French  Revolution 
in  all  the  neighbouring  countries 
of  Europe,  but  its  Greco-Roman 
art  established  itself,  and  by 
degrees  was  introduced  into  the 
studios  of  painters  and  the  print- 
ing offices.  Prud'hon,  Gerard,  Girodet,  and  later 
Desenne,  without  counting  the  younger  Moreau  and 
his  contemporaries  of  the  older  regime,  rallied  to  the 
new  study,  forming  a  school  of  illustrators  and  vignet- 
tists  with  which  the  publishers  could  resolutely  ad- 
vance. England  followed  suit  with  Flaxman,  West, 
Fuseli,  Barry,  and  a  crowd  of  others.  Among  the 
")(  publishers  the  powerful  family  of  the  Didots  took  first 
rank,  and  its  members,  at  once  type-founders,  printers, 
booksellers,  and  savants  of  the  first  order,  were  the 
best  fitted  to  direct  an  artistic  and  literary  movement. 


THE   DIDOT   FAMILY.  219 

When  Napoleon  crowned  himselfemperor  of  the  French, 
the  elders  of  the  family  had  already  brought  about  a 
number  of  perfections  and  discoveries  in  their  pro- 
fession b}'  which  their  workshops  had  profited.  Fran- 
cois Ambroise,  who  died  in  the  year  of  the  Empire,  had 
given  an  exact  proportion  to  types,  a  free  and  elegant 
turn,  but  perhaps  too  regular  and  precise  to  be  agree- 
able. He  had  also  invented  a  press  called  the  presse 
a  tin  coup,  in  which  the  impression  was  taken  by  a 
single  pull  instead  of  being  produced  by  a  series  of 
successive  strikings.  His  brother,  Pierre  Francois, 
spoken  of  in  the  preceding  chapter,  was  a  type-founder 
and  paper-maker  at  Essones,  and  counted  among  his 
official  titles  "  printer  .to  the  Comte  de  Provence,"  as 
Francois  Ambroise  was  to  the  Comte  d'Artois. 

Of  these  two  branches  equall}^  faithful  to  typography, 
Pierre  Didot,  son  of  Francois  Ambroise,  became  the" 
head  on  the  death  of  his  father.  Born  in  1760,  he 
had  studied  his  art  with  passion,  and  had  merited  the 
installation  of  his  workshops  in  the  Louvre,  where 
he  published  a  celebrated  collection  known  as  the 
Louvre  editions,  the  chef-d'oeuvre  of  which  was  the 
works  of  Racine.  The  splendid  execution  of  this  book, 
in  three  large  folio  volumes,  was  a  true  t3^pographical 
revolution.  Never  in  any  country  had  scrupulous 
perfection  of  detail  been  joined  to  so  masterly  a  know- 
ledge of  disposition  and  form  of  characters.  The  great 
artists  of  the  Davidian  school  had  the  honour  of  seeing 
their  drawings  reproduced  as  illustrations,  and  those 
named  above  designed  the  fifty-seven  plates  with  which 
the  edition  was  adorned.  Pierre  Didot  displayed  a"^ 
great  affectation  in  only  printing  two  hundred  and  fifty 


220  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

copies  of  his  irreproachable  and  marvellous  work,  of 
which  a  hundred  had  proofs  of  the  plates  before  letters. 
Published  by  subscription,  the  ordinary  edition  was 
issued  at  1,200  francs,  and  with  proofs  1,800  francs. 

To  these  superb  works  Firmin  Didot,  his  brother, 
added  ingenious  discoveries.  Struck  with  certain  diffi- 
culties of  printing  as  well  as  of  correction,  he  imagined 
the  welding  together  of  the  types  of  a  forme,  when 
once  obtained  without  faults,  so  as  to  avoid  the  trouble 
of  new  composition.  This  process,  useless  for  books  of 
small  number,  had  a  capital  importance  in  the  case  of 
reimpressions  of  popular  and  successful  works.  He 
named  this  method  stereotype,  and  from  1799  he 
published  a  Racine  in  i8mo  by  this  method;  but  the 
originality  of  the   method,   which   he  was  the  first   to 

Y  call  stereotype,  ended  with  its  name,  for  the  process  had 
already  been  discovered  by  William  Ged,  a  goldsmith  of 
Edinburgh,  in    1725,  the  first   book    produced  in  this 

•manner  being  an  edition  of  Sallust,  printed  in  1744, 
8vo,  "  non  typis  mobilibus  ut  vulgo  fieri  solet,  sed 
tabellis  seu  laminis  fusis,  excudebat." 

This  admirably  directed  house,  we  may  indeed  say 
this  school  of  typography,  formed  with  Renouard, 
Claye,  Rignoux,  and  others,  the  greater  number  of  the 
French  publishers  of  the  middle  of  the  century.  When 
the  Czar  Alexander  went  to  Paris,  he  wished  to  do 
honour  to  the  greatest  French  practitioners  in  the 
science  of  printing,  in  the  persons  of  the  brothers 
Pierre  and  Firmin  Didot.  But  these  were  not  the 
only  ones.  The  sons  of  Pierre  Frangois,  Henri  and 
Pierre  Francois  II. — the  latter  specially  applied  himself 
to  paper-making,  under  the  name  of  Didot  St.  Leger — 


THE   DIDOTS    AND   ST.    PIERRE.  221 

followed  in  the  footsteps  of  their  father  and  uncle. 
Pierre  Francois  made  at  Essones  an  excellent  paper, ^ 
which  he  brought  to  the  perfection  of  making  it  in 
endless  rolls,  such  as  are  made  to-day  for  rotary 
machines.  Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre  retired  to  Essones 
about  the  end  of  the  last  centur}^,  and  there  married  the 
daughter  of  Pierre  Francois  II.  It  is  a  curious  coinci- 
dence that  the  same  village  contained  at  once  the  man 
whose  works  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  had  so 
extraordinary  a  success  and  the  great  family  of  printers 
who  had  given  definitive  impetus  to  typographical 
work.  It  was  in  this  tranquil  circle  that  the  author 
of  "  Paul  and  Virginia,"  at  the  age  of  sixty,  sought  re- 
pose ;  that  the  publication  of  his  book  was  resolved  upon 
with  all  the  luxury  due  to  its  success,  with  admirable 
type  and  with  plates  by  Prud'hon  and  others.  He 
added  to  it  the  Chaumicre  Indiennc,  written  in  1790, 
on  the  eve  of  the  Terror,  which  is  one  of  the  most 
delicate  novels  of  the  time. 

The  homely  and  sweet  literature  of  Bernardin  de  St. 
Pierre,  the  heroic  inventions  of  Girodet,  Gerard,  and 
Chaudet  in  the  Greek  or  Roman  style,  the  clever  but 
severe  typography  of  the  Didots — such  is  the  com- 
position of  the  Book  at  the  beginning  of  the  century, 
and  also  its  avowed  tendency  and  good  taste.  Under 
Louis  XV,  the  nymphs  carried  panniers  ;  Polyeucte  had 
peruke  and  sword.  It  would  be  unbecoming  not  to  give 
Juno  or  Venus  the  head-dress  adopted  in  paintings  and 
vignettes.  At  the  time  which  now  occupies  us  fashion 
in  clothing  directed  designers  also.  The  hair  of  god- 
desses was  a  la  Titus ;  the  w^aist  was  under  the  arms  ; 
golden  circles  were  on  the  brow.     Simple  mortals  walked 


222  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

naked  on  the  roads,  with  plumed  casques  and  superb 
shields.  There  were  heroes  putting  forth  their  dispro- 
portioned  arms,  others  raising  their  eyes  to  heaven  in 
impossible  attitudes.  Such  w^ere  all  the  vignettes,  from 
Girodet  to  the  humblest,  the  last,  the  most  forgotten. 

It  happens,  by  an  oddity  of  which  the  cause  is  vainly 
sought,  that  this  classic  and  revolutionary  school  of 
David  identifies  itself  so  well  with  the  Napoleonic 
epoch,  then  with  the  people  of  the  Restoration,  that 
it  seems  expressly  made  for  them.  At  the  same 
time,  under  Louis  XVIII.  and  Charles  X.  the  Romans 
and  Greeks  had  not  the  bold  carriage  of  their  earl}' 
days  ;  they  became  more  citizenised,  and  assumed  the 
air  of  the  national  guards  of  the  kingdom  of  which  later 
an  excessive  use  was  made. 

England  also  had  a  splendid  series  of  publishers  and 
printers.  From  Boydell,  Harding,  the  Murrays,  Fisher  ; 
from  Bulmer,  Bensley,  Strahan,  the  Whittinghams, 
and  Hansard,  to  our  day,  there  has  been  an  unbroken 
and  constantly  increasing  line  of  clever,  practical  men, 
adorning  the  professions  to  which  they  devoted  their 
energies,  often  realising  that  fortune  which  properly 
directed  energies  command.  In  the  first  half  of  the 
century  a  vast  number  of  splendidly  printed  books 
were  issued,  ornamented  in  the  most  lavish  manner 
with  beautiful  illustrations,  engraved  on  steel  or  copper 
plates,  and  with  delicate  woodcuts.  Book  illustration 
in  England  may  be  said  now  to  have  reached  perfection. 
When  the  banker-poet  Samuel  Rogers  wished  to  bring 
out  an  illustrated  edition  of  his  works,  he  employed 
the  two  most  capable  artists  of  the  time,  Thomas 
Stothard  and  J.  M.  W.  Turner ;  and  they  produced  an 


ENGLISH   BOOKS   IN    THE    19TH   CENTURY.      223 

admirable  series  of  designs,  which  were  exquisitely 
engraved  by  Finden,  Goodall,  and  Pye.  The  work 
was  printed  by  T.  Davidson,  in  two  volumes,  octavo  : 
the  "  Italy"  in  1830  and  the  "  Poems  "  in  1834  ;  these 
two  volumes,  from  the  perfect  harmony  of  the  typo- 
graphy and  illustration  and  their  combined  beauty, 
may  be  referred  to  as  the  perfection  of  book-making. 
A  very  charming  series  of  volumes  is  found  in  the 
"  Annuals,"  "  Keepsakes,"  "  Amulets,"  and  similar 
annual  publications,  illustrated  with  beautiful  steel  plates 
by  the  best  engravers.  The  splendidly  printed  and 
illustrated  bibliographical  works  of  Dr.  T.  F.  Dibdin 
ma}''  also  be  mentioned.  They  extend  to  several 
volumes,  and  were  printed  by  Buhner  and  his  successors 
Nicoll  and  T.  Bensley,  illustrated  by  engraved  plates 
and  woodcuts  by  F.  C.  Lewis  and  others.  H.  G.  Bohn, 
besides  the  fine  series  known  as  "  Bohn's  Libraries," 
numbering  over  six  hundred  volumes,  in  every  branch 
of  literature,  art,  and  science,  published  many  finely 
illustrated  books,  and  as  a  bookseller  had  the  largest 
stock  of  his  day.  Charles  Knight  did  marvels  in 
popularising  literature  in  his  day.  William  Pickering 
published  a  long  series  of  very  beautiful  books,  and  in 
conjunction  with  Charles  Whittingham,  printer,  of  the  ^ 
far-famed  Chiswick  Press,  revived  the  Aldine  or  old-~f 
faced  types  ;  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  his  publica- 
tions was  Sir  Harris  Nicolas's  edition  of  Walton's 
"  Angler,"  in  two  volumes,  imperial  octavo,  with  a  very 
fine  set  of  steel  plates,  designed  by  Stothard  and 
engraved  by  Augustus  Fox  and  W.  J.  Cooke,  besides 
engraved  vignettes  and  representations  of  fish  drawn 
by  Inskipp. 


224  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

In  Germany  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  achieve- 
ment of  the  century  is  the  extraordinary  series  of 
volumes  of  English  authors,  now  (1887)  numbering 
2,500,  issued  by  Baron  Tauchnitz,  of  Leipzig,  which, 
although  eminently  popular  in  their  character,  are  well 
and  tastefully  printed.  Among  the  most  notable  of  the 
printing  and  publishing  houses  of  Germany,  many  of 
them  combining  the  two  trades,  are  J.  G.  Cotta,  dating 
from  1640;  Breitkopf  and  Hartel,  dating  from  1719  ; 
Justus  Perthes,  founded  1796;  T.  O.  Weigel,  1797;  F. 
A.  Brockhaus,  1805  ;  B.  G.  Teubner,  181 1 ;  W.  Drugulin, 
1829  ;  J.  J.  Weber,  1834,  etc.  Germany  has  advanced 
with  England  and  France  in  fine  typograph}'  and  illustra- 
tion in  their  several  kinds.  The  modern  school  of  book 
illustration  in  Germany  undoubtedly  has  its  origin  in 
the  influence  given  to  it  by  the  designs  of  the  artist 
Adolph  Menzel,  amongst  which  a  series  of  two  hundred 
illustrations  to  the  works  of  Frederick  the  Great,  en- 
graved on  wood  by  the  Vogels,  Unzelman  and  Miiller, 
show  him  to  be  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  accurate 
draughtsmen  of  the  century. 

To  return  to  France,  a  new  literature  arose  that 
was  to  react  against  the  Greek  full  of  Gallicisms ;  but 
the  movement,  in  reversing  the  ancient  state  of  things, 
in  wishing  to  replace  antiquity  by  the  Middle  Ages,  old 
Romans  by  old  French,  completely  changed  the  phy- 
siognomy of  the  Book.  The  engraved  vignette  and  the 
copper  plate  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries 
were  to  lose  their  supremacy  and  to  give  way  to  etching 
and  wood  engraving,  also  a  revival  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
'  It  is  not  sufficiently  known  that  wood  engraving, 
after  the  unfortunate  attempts  of  Papillon  in   France, 


WOOD   ENGRAVING   REVIVED. 


225 


was  restored  in  England  by  Thomas  Bewick,  who 
founded  a  school,  of  which,  at  the  commencement  of 
our  century,  Clennell  and  the  brothers  Thompson  were 
members.  One  of  the  Thompsons  went  to  France 
about  the  middle  of  the  Restoration,  doubtless  with  the 
hope  of  profiting  by  his  art,  and  he  offered  to  the  Print 


Department  of  the  National  Library 
the  diploma  of  the  Highland  Society,  a 
large  folio  wood  block,  very  adroit  and  very  curi- 
ously cut,  after  the  drawing  of  the  celebrated  Benja- 
min West,  and  copied  from  Clennell's  original  block 
of  the  same  subject.  M.  Duchesne,  then  Keeper  of 
the  Prints,  speaks  of  this  last  process  as  of  an  ap- 
parition :     "This    print     makes    apparent    the    long- 

15 


226  THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 

neglected  and  often  reappearing  art  of  wood  engraving, 
which,  though  it  could  never  equal  copper  engraving, 
nevertheless  merits  the  attention  of  amateurs  when  a 
capable  hand  is  exercised  upon  it."  It  was,  we  see,  a 
curiosity  then,  this  relief  cutting,  of  which  the  resurrec- 
tion was  to  give  an  enormous  impulse  to  the  Book  from 
the  facilities  of  printing  and  the  economies  realised  b}'' 
the  possibility  of  intercalation  in  periodicals.  In  fact, 
metal  printing  necessitated  so  much  trouble,  more  for 
engraving  than  for  the  impression.  With  wood  blocks 
surrounded  by  type  the  ordinary  press  sufficed.  The 
Magasin  Pittoresque,  which  was  commenced  in  1833,  and 
the  success  of  which  from  the  first  was  ver}''  great, 
was  born  of  these  new  combinations.  Before  it  the 
Messager  Boiteiix  of  Strasbourg  and  other  popular 
almanacs  progressed  very  well  with  their  illustrations 
on  wood.  A  kind  of  firm  of  engravers,  at  the  head  of 
which  were  Best  and  Andrew,  undertook  the  illustrations 
of  the  Magasin  Pittoresque.  In  a  few  years  progress 
was  immense,  other  publications  came  into  existence, 
and  a  definitive  return  was  made  to  the  vignette  in 
relief.  The  French  illustrated  paper  preceded  our 
Illustrated  London  News  by  nine  years. 

Lavish  use  was  now  made  of  wood  engraving,  which 
had  thus  been  suddenly  revived  in  the  very  midst  of 
the  new  romantic  effervescence,  amid  a  war  of  books, 
which,  in  order  to  please,  had  above  all  to  captivate  the 
eye,  reacting  at  once  against  the  spirit  and  the  art  of 
the  Restoration.  Never  before  had  artists  to  such  an 
extent  taken  active  part  in  a  purely  literary  warfare. 
All  the  fantastic  tendencies  of  young  France  were 
embodied  in  the  lame  and  halting  lines  of  the  time  and 


ROMANCE  IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  22/ 

similar  wretched  doggerel.  Doubtless  the  leaders  of  the 
school  did  not  go  quite  so  far,  and  their  reputation  even 
suffered  from  such  theories ;  but,  as  always  happens 
in  such  cases,  the  disciples  outstripped  their  masters. 

The  brothers  Johannot  were  the  first  to  join  in  the 
fra}',  under  the  flag  of  the  poets  and  others  of  the 
romantic  school,  such  as  Victor  Hugo,  De  Vigny,  Paul 
Lacroix,  George  Sand,  and   Deveria,  most  ruthless  of 


Fig.  94.  — Vignette  by  Deveria  for  the  Fiance  dc  la  Tombe. 

illustrators.  The  last-named  had  designed  vignettes 
on  wood,  of  all  others,  for  Baour-Lormian,  that  is  to 
say  for  the  foe  of  the  new  ideas,  at  once  the  interpreter 
of  Ossian  and  the  bourgeois  bard,  full  of  fire  and  fury 
against  everything  in  turn.  The  Legendes,  Ballades, 
et  Fabliaux,  illustrated  by  Deveria  in  1829,  although 
a  sort  of  compromise  with  the  lovesick  swains  of 
mediaeval  times,  did  not  escape  the  shafts  of  ridicule. 
In  the  midst  of  this  movement  the  Book  became 
democratic  ;  it  was  printed  on  sugar-paper  for  reading- 


228  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

rooms  and  scullery  maids.  The  generation  of  romancists 
diffused  its  paper-covered  works,  printing  a  thousand 
copies  and  selling  five  hundred  with  great  difficulty. 
Poets  publishing  five  hundred  were  happy  with  a  sale 
of  two  hundred  and  fifty.  Unheard-of  titles  were  then 
needed  to  catch  the  eye,  ridiculous  and  ghastly  frontis- 
pieces to  tickle  the  fancy  of  the  riffraff.  Paul  Lacroix 
called  himself  the  "  Bibliophile  Jacob,"  and  invented 
surprising  headpieces  and  foolish  designs.  And  then, 
as  in  the  fifteenth  century,  as  in  the  old  times,  certain 
signs  become  popular  with  the  reading  public.  In  the 
place  of  the  Doctrinals,  Complaints,  and  Disputes,  so 
common  in  the  titles  of  those  epochs,  new  fancies 
spring  up  and  have  their  day.  Eccentric  devices 
recommend  romantic  trash,  in  which  the  assassin's 
dagger,  blood,  and  the  horrors  of  the  tomb  have  re- 
placed the  insipid  fantasies  of  the  fallen  regime.  Petrus 
Borel,  the  werewolf,  a  sort  of  historic  ghoul  prowling 
about  the  graveyards,  enjoyed  a  monopoly,  as  it  were, 
of  the  ghastly  titles  and  contents  of  this  charnel-house 
literature ;  it  was  for  his  Chauipavcrt,  published  in 
1833,  that  Gigoux  composed  a  kind  of  Bluebeard 
surrounded  by  female  skeletons,  that  opened  the  eyes 
of  publishers  to  his  value  as  a  vignettist. 

Although  he  threw  himself  soul  and  body  into  the 
romantic  movement,  the  young  artist  did  not  alone 
design  subjects  called  "  abracadabrants,"  following  the 
neologism  of  the  time,  any  more  than  the  booksellers 
only  published  romances.  An  attempt  was  made,  by 
publishing  them  in  parts,  to  still  further  popularise 
the  old  writers  at  all  harmonising  with  the  current 
taste.     The  publisher  Paulin  thus  issued   the  Gil  Bias 


GIGOUX'S    "  GIL   BLAS." 


229 


of  Le  Sage,  with  illustrations  in  the  text  by  the 
younger  Gigoux,  of  which  the  best  was  hoped.  The 
history  of  this  celebrated  enterprise  has  been  written 
by  the  artist  himself  in  the  curious  Caitscrics  published 
recently  by  him,  fifty  years  after  his  work  on  Gil  Bias  ; 
and  this  interesting  view  of  an  epoch  already  far  dis- 
tant gives  us  in  a  few  words  the  ordinary  economy  of 
these  popular  impressions  in  parts. 


Fi£ 


95. — Vignette  by  John  Gigoux  for  Gil  Bias, 


It  appears  that  Paulin,  publisher  in  the  Rue  de  Seine, 
not  being  very  well  off,  had  associated  himself  with  a 
man  of  business  named  Dubochet,  who  had  before  made 
an  enormous  fortune  with  gas.  The  two  represented 
fifteen  thousand  to  twenty  thousand  francs,  and  they 
ordered  a  hundred  drawings  on  wood  from  the  young 
artist.     He  set  to  work  with  precaution,  for  Dubochet 


230  THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 

was  hard  to  please,  without  knowing  much  about  the 
business,  and  fined  the  engravers  for  the  least  faults. 
Gigoux  set  himself  to  give  his  compositions  in  simple 
line,  without  complicated  shadows,  so  as  to  allow  the 
wood-cutters  to  preserve  a  free  outline.  It  was  nearly 
the  same  thing  as  the  process  of  the  old  artists  of  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  of  Vostre  and  Holbein  : 
true  engraving  in  relief.  The  success  of  the  first  sheets 
was  extraordinary  ;  new  vignettes  were  ordered  from 
Gigoux ;  in  place  of  a  hundred  they  wanted  three 
hundred,  then  four  hundred  ;  then  at  the  end  of  the 
work  they  counted  six  hundred  at  least.  Money  filled 
the  chests  of  the  firm,  but  when  the  artist  claimed  a 
small  share  of  the  benefits,  they  laughed  in  his  face. 

Properly  speaking,  it  was  the  first  serious  attempt  at 
illustration  b}'  the  recovered  method  of  engraving  in  re- 
lief, but  it  was  not  the  only  one.  Curmer,  the  publisher 
of  the  Rue  Richelieu,  prepared  a  Bible  in  1835  and 
several  other  volumes,  among  which  were  the  "  Paul  and 
Virginia  "  and  the  Chaiimiere  Indienne  of  Bernardin  de 
St.  Pierre.  He  had  also  collected  around  him  a  circle  of 
artists  that  included  Wattier,  Deveria,  and  Meissonier, 
who  was  the  most  perfect  and  correct  of  the  designers 
on  wood.  Meissonier  designed  very  soberly,  without 
effects  of  light,  little  scenes  admirably  cut  b}^  an  engraver 
named  Lavoignat,  a  master  in  the  largest  sense  of  the 
word.  Curmer  wrote  in  1835  i^  the  preface  to  one  of 
his  books,  "  We  hope  we  have  raised  a  monument  to 
wood  engraving.  It  is  easy  to  judge  of  the  resources 
presented  by  this  art.  We  are  compelled  to  have 
recourse  to  England  to  accomplish  our  work.  Peace 
to  willing  publishers  !  " 


CURMER  S   PUBLICATIONS. 


231 


Curmer  acknowledges  the  importance  of  English 
speciahsts  in  this  new  process  for  vignettes,  and  the 
wilhng  pubhshers  were  not  wanting ;  they  came  from 
all  parts.  He  himself  did  not  stop  on  the  way ;  he 
continued  his  work  on  a  large  scale ;  and  Charles 
Blanc  was  able  to  say  of  him  later,  as  well  as  of  Furne, 


■'N 


Fig.  96. — Vignette  by  Daumier  for  the  Cholera  a  Paris. 

"  He  desired  to  illustrate  books  for  everybody,  as  the 
great  booksellers  of  the  last  century  had  illustrated 
their  rare  editions  for  a  small  number  of  privileged 
persons."  But  he  did  not  always  confine  himself  to 
wood  engraving ;  he  also  employed  etching  and  litho- 
graphy.    These,   requiring  separate  printing,   did  Jiot 


232  thp:  printed  book. 

make  intercalation  with  the  text  any  easier  than  en- 
graving with  the  burin  ;  but  they  served  to  illustrate 
periodicals,  the  Charivari  and  L! Artiste,  as  well  as 
some  books,  where  they  replaced  the  engraved  plates 
of  the  preceding  century.  At  the  same  time,  the  latter 
process  was  not  altogether  neglected  ;  about  1840  it 
was  revived,  and  steel  was  used  in  place  of  copper,  as 
it  better  resisted  repeated  impressions.  The  publisher 
Furne,  while  he  employed  wood  engraving,  adorned 
with  separate  plates  on  steel  his  better  publications. 
For  him  worked  Raflfet,  one  of  the  romanticists 
enamoured  of  the  Napoleonic  epic,  which  he  had 
popularised,  with  Charlet  and  Bellange,  by  the  pencil, 
wood,  and  lithography.  Raffet  had  transferred  upon 
wood,  as  if  in  play,  the  three  hundred  and  fifty-one 
vignettes  of  the  Histoirc  dc  Napoleon,  by  De  Norvins, 
which  would  to-day  suffice  for  the  glory  and  reputation 
of  many  artists.  In  fact,  the  analytical  and  inductive 
spirit  of  the  artist  led  him  to  leave  nothing  to  the 
chances  of  inspiration  and  commonplace  of  illustration. 
He  laboriously  reconstituted,  fragment  by  fragment, 
the  physiognomy  of  the  "  old  army  ;  "  and  imbued  with 
the  perfect  science  of  detail,  he  allowed  his  pencil  full 
play  in  bold  and  luminous  inventions,  where  may  be 
seen  again,  with  their  peculiar  appearance,  the  heroes 
of  other  days,  the  soldiers  of  the  Rhine  and  Italy,  of 
Austerlitz  and  Waterloo. 

A  truly  lively  period  was  that  of  1840,  a  living  and 
unthinking  generation.  By  the  side  of  those  great 
artists  of  whom  we  have  spoken,  and  who  will  be  more 
admired  some  day,  there  were  the  fantasists  Travies 
and  Daumier,  who  adorned  the  illustrated  journals  with 


BOOK    ILLUSTRATION    IN    184O. 


233 


innumerable  sketches,  and  Grandville  and  Gavarni,  one 
caricaturing  animals  in  a  celebrated  book,  Lcs  Animaux 
Pcints  par  Eiix-un'mcs,  which  is  more  than  a  cJieJ- 
d'cctivrc ;  the  other  coolly  studying  the  vices  and  faults 
of  his  time,  with  the  precision  of  an  anatomist,  in 
Lcs  Anglais  Pcints  par  Eiix-tneuics  of  Labedolliere,  in 
the  Diablc  a  Paris,  with- 
out counting  a  thousand 
other  works  which  his 
penetrating  imagination 
produced. 

Presently  photography 
came,  which  was  to  re- 
verse completely  the  con- 
ditions of  illustration  of 
the  Book  by  the  numer- 
ous means  of  reproduc- 
tion to  which  it  gave 
birth.  Then  wood  en- 
graving entered  on  a 
new  phase,  a  complete 
transformation  of  its  or- 
dinary terms,  under  the 
influence  of  Gustave 
Dore.  Little  by  little  it  had  been  attempted  to  render 
in  relief  that  which  engraved  plates  only  had  hitherto 
done.  Black,  half-tints,  lowered  tones,  were  tried  where 
formerly  a  simple  line,  bold  and  spirited,  signified 
everything.  The  house  of  Hachette,  founded  by  one 
of  the  normal  teachers  of  the  liberal  movement,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  century,  was,  together  with  Lahure, 
the  promoter  of  relief  so  inclusive  and  practical.     The 


Fig.  97. 


-Vignette  by  Gavarni  tor 
Paris  Marie. 


=34 


THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 


numerous  periodicals  of  tiiese  publishers  spread  the 
taste  afar.  England,  for  its  part,  entered  on  the  road, 
followed  by  America  and  Germany.  To-day  wood 
engravings  have  reached  perfection,  finesse,  and  sup- 
pleness ;  but  they  are  not,  properly  speaking,  engravings 
on  wood. 

We  have  seen  that  French  publishers  were  largely 


LT':'^"^-.«Mi}i 


Fig.    98. — Balzac   writing    his    Conies   Drolatujiics.       Vignette  by 
Gustave  Dore. 


indebted  to  English  wood  engravers  for  their  blocks. 
The  school  that  was  established  by  Bewick  and  his 
pupils  made  enormous  progress.  From  the  "  Fables," 
published  in  1 818,  we  reproduce  an  illustration  as  also 
a  specimen  from  the  second  volume  of  the  "  British 
Birds."  Luke  Clennell  was  one  of  the  most  distin- 
guished   of  Bewick's    pupils ;    and  he   made  some  ex- 


ENGLISH  ILLUSTRATION  OF  THE  IQTH  CENTURY.    235 


cellent  blocks,  among  them  the  ilhistrations  to  an 
edition  of  Rogers's  "Poems"  (1812),  engraved  from 
pen-and-ink  drawings  by  Thomas  Stothard.  It  was 
Stothard's  opinion  that  wood  engraving  best  repro- 
duced pen-and-ink  drawings.  Other  pupils  of  Bewick 
were  J.  Jackson,  John  Thompson,  w^ho  engraved 
Harvey's  beautiful  illustrations  to  Milton  and  Hender- 


Fig.  99. — Wood  block  by  Bewick,  from  his  "Fables,'  1818. 
The  fox  and  the  goat. 

son's  "  History  of  Wines,"  S.  Williams,  Orrin  Smith, 
Robert  Branston,  and  C.  Nesbit.  The  most  prolific 
and  perhaps  the  most  popular  book-illustrator  of  the 
century  in  England,  was  George  Cruikshank,  who 
engraved  most  of  his  own  designs  on  wood,  steel,  or 
with  the  etching  needle ;  the  catalogue  of  his  works 
by  Mr.  G.  W.  Reid,  formerly  keeper  of  the  Prints  in 
the  British  Museum,  occupies  three  quarto  volumes. 
The  designs  of  "  Phiz,"  as  H.  K.  Browne  called  himseli, 


236 


THE   PRINTED   BOOK 


largely  contributed  to  the  popularity  of  the  works  of 
Charles  Dickens  ;  and.  the  mere  mention  of  Richard 
Doyle  and  John  Leech  will  recall  the  palmy  days  of 
Punch,  although  both  of  these  artists  did  excellent 
work  in  book  illustration.  From  the  days  of  the  Be- 
wicks to  the  present  wood  engraving  has  formed  the 
most  widely  used  means  of  illustration  in  England  and 
the  United  States.  Its  adaptability  to  the  printing 
machine  renders  it  admirably  suited  to  the  production 
of    books    in    large    numbers    and    at    low    expense. 


Fig.  100. — Wood  block  from  Bewick's  "  British  Birds." 
The  common  duck. 


Without  it  we  could  not  have  our  Graphics  and 
Illustrated  News,  nor  the  floods  of  cheap  but  splendidly 
illustrated  magazines  which  are  appearing  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic.  True,  many  of  these  blocks  are 
due  to  the  "processes"  which  photography  has  made 
available,  but  they  are  nevertheless  the  outcome  of 
wood  engraving.  We  cannot  leave  this  subject  without 
mentioning  the  admirable  "  Treatise  on  Wood  En- 
graving," by  W.  A.  Chatto,  with  numerous  illustra- 
tions, published  originally  by  H.  G.  Bohn  in  1839  and 
since  reprinted. 


PROCESSES   OF    ILLUSTRATION.  237 

In  our  days  the  great  Paris  publishers  have  returned 
to  the  books  of  the  eighteenth  century,  ornamented 
with  vignettes  on  copper  ;  many  of  theni  purely  and 
simply  imitate  by  photographic  processes  the  pretty 
editions  of  Eisen  and  Moreau,  but  they  do  not  merit 
the  name  which  they  bear.  As  to  those  whose 
specialty  is  handsome  books  with  figures  by  con- 
temporary artists,  those  who  always  are  in  the  front, 
as  the  Mames,  Quantins,   Hachettes,   Plons,  Jouausts, 


Fig.   loi. — Wood  engraving  by  Clennell, 
after  Stothard,  for  Rogers's  Poems.  1812. 

of  France;  the  Longmans,  Murrays,  Macmillans,  Kegan 
Pauls,  Cassells,  and  Chattos  of  England;  the  Harpers, 
Scribners,  Lippincotts,  and  Houghtons  of  the  United 
States,  they  are  to  us  what  the  ancients  of  whom  we 
have  spoken  were  to  their  contemporaries.  Now  the 
processes  of  illustration  are  without  number:  wood, 
metal,  heliogravure,  phototype,  and  others.  And  if  the 
mechanical  means,  if  the  heliogravures,  have  at  present 
the  importance  claimed,  they  by  no  means  add  to  the 
intrinsic  value  of  wood  engravings,  but  to  the  rapidity 
and  economy  of  their  manufacture.     The  Book,  the  true 


238  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

Book,  has  nothing  to  do  with  all  these  inventions,  and 
may  well  confine  itself  to  the  burin  or  the  relief  block. 

But  as  regards  the  Book,  properly  so  called,  it  never 
was  the  object  of  more  excessive  care  or  of  more  unfor- 
tunate precipitation.  It  may  be  remarked  that  works 
least  destined  to  live  in  the  libraries,  those  thousands 
of  lame  pamphlets  on  questions  of  small  provincial 
erudition  or  the  cap-and-sword  romances,  are  ordinarily 
the  best  and  most  carefully  printed,  in  opposition  to  other 
more  important  works  composed  in  heads  of  nails  and 
on  worn-out  paper.  There  are  in  reading-rooms  a 
good  number  of  pamphlets  that  will  not  be  found  in 
fifty  years,  and  will  be  worth  their  weight  in  bank- 
notes, even  if  dirty  and  tattered,  on  account  of  their 
intrinsic  value. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


TYPES,    IMPRESSION,    PAPER,     INK. 

FTER  this  summary,  and  neces- 
sarily very  compressed,  sketch  of 
the  general  history  of  the  Book, 
it  will  not  be  without  importance 
to  place  some  technical  informa- 
tion before  the  reader,  to  explain 
as  clearly  as  possible  the  function 
of  the  presses,  the  practical  side  of  typography,  from 
the  engraving  of  the  character  and  the  founding  of 
types  up  to  the  binding,  taking  by  the  way  composition, 
impression,  and  collation.  Many  of  these  operations 
have  been  already  sketched  in  the  preceding  part  of 
our  work ;  we  have  spoken  of  engraving  of  the  punch, 
of  impression,  of  the  thousand  details  that  constitute 
the  typographic  art,  and  the  knowledge  of  which  is  so 
little  diffused.  We  return  to  it  now,  with  more  method, 
on  the  different  subjects,  and  shall  try  to  point  out  the 
principal  features. 

We  have  seen  in  our  first  chapter  what  patient 
researches  the  discovery  necessitated  for  the  Mayence 
printers  in  the  founding  of  the  character  in  matrix. 
True,  the  punch  and  the  matrix  had  existed  from  time 
immemorial  for  coins  and  seals.     To  engrave  in  relief  a 


240  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

punch  of  material  hard  enough  to  strike  a  resisting 
metal,  and  to  run  into  the  space  obtained  by  this  blow 
a  melted  alloy,  which  took  at  its  extremity  the  same 
form  as  the  punch  had  given,  is,  in  a  few  words,  the 
whole  economy  of  the  process.  For  the  engraving  of 
the  punches  a  sort  of  burin  of  tempered  steel  was  used, 
which  scooped  out  the  part  intended  to  remain  white  in 
the  letter. 

From  the  beginning  the  printers  themselves  engraved 
their  own  characters.  The  most  ancient,  whose  constant 
preoccupation  was  the  imitation  of  manuscript,  copied 
the  Gothic  letter  of  ordinary  writing.  Soon  afterwards, 
Jenson,  the  French  refugee  at  Venice,  designed  a 
round  letter,  like  that  of  Sweynheim  and  Pannartz, 
the  Roman  publishers,  in  1467  ;  and  his  type,  abso- 
lutely perfect,  is  used  to  this  day. 

In  France  the  introducers  of  the  invention  in  Paris 
also  imitated  the  Roman,  but  multiplied  abbreviations 
until  they  became  tedious.  We  can  imagine  what  the 
engraving  of  a  character  could  be  where  so  few  letters 
stood  alone,  where  lines  abridged  the  nasals  ;  the  words 
pro^  pre,  figured  as  in  manuscripts  ;  the  sign  9  signified 
cum  or  coil  in  Latin  or  French  words,  without  reckon- 
ing a  thousand  other  rigorous  usages.  This  truly 
perplexing  profusion  of  signs  as  well  as  the  want  of 
precision  and  clearness  in  the  letter  enables  us  now  to 
recognise  the  first  Parisian  iiicunabida* 

The  first  English  printers  used  Gothic  or  black 
letter.  Caxton  brought  his  first  fount  from  Cologne, 
but  that  which  he  made  afterwards  for  himself  was  of 
the  same  character.     Wynkyn  de  Worde,  Pynson,  and 

*  See  above,   figs.  lo,  ii,  12. 


EARLY   TYPE-FOUNDERS.  24I 

their  successors  used  the  same  style  ;  and  for  official 
publications  and  Bibles  the  black  letter  was  used  up 
to  the  seventeenth  century. 

But  the  art   of  the  founder-engraver    was    destined 
to    specialise    itself.       There    were     artisans    in    this 


Fig.   102. — Type-founder  in  tlie   middle  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
Engraving  by  Jest  Amman. 

branch,  and  among  them  in  France,  in  the  fifteenth 
centur}',  Simon  de  Collines,  who  engraved  good  Roman 
characters  about  1480.  Later  was  Claude  Garamond, 
of  Paris,  who  died  about  1561,  a  pupil  of  Geofifroy  Tory, 
the   most  celebrated  of  all   of  them  ;    Tory  definitely 

16 


242  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

proscribed  the  Gothic  character,  of  which  Vostre  and 
Verard  had  made  constant  use.  Garamond  worked  in 
this  way,  producing  with  microscopical  precision  new 
letters,  among  others  those  of  Robert  Estienne,  the 
most  marvellous  and  the  most  distinct.  It  was  he  who 
was  charged  by  Francis  I.  to  form  the  celebrated  royal 
Greek  types.  He  assisted  in  getting  up  the  Champ- 
fleiiry  of  Geoffroy  Tory. 

On  his  death  William  Lebe  succeeded  him,  and 
inherited  his  punches.  Lebe  engraved  by  preference 
Hebrew  characters,  of  which  he  made  a  specialty.  His 
travels  to  Rome  and  Venice  had  given  him  a  singular 
value  in  his  art ;  and  when  he  died  about  the  end  ot 
the  century,  he  was  incontestably  the  first  cutter  of 
Oriental  characters  in  the  whole  world.  Philip  II.  of 
Spain  had  begged  him  to  engrave  the  letters  of  the 
Bible  of  which  Plantin  had  undertaken  the  impression, 
and  Francis  I.  had  charged  him  to  make  types  for  the 
Estiennes. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  seventeenth  century  we 
find  James  Sanlecque,  pupil  of  Lebe,  and  his  son. 
During  this  period  several  women  succeeded  their 
husbands  as  type-founders.  In  the  eighteenth  century 
Philip  Grandjean,  an  artist  who  was  royal  printer  to 
Louis  XIV.,  was  keeper  of  the  foundry  afterwards 
united,  in  1725,  to  the  Royal  Printing  House;  Fournier 
succeeded  the  Lebes,  then  P.  S.  Fournier  the  younger, 
who  engraved  with  great  success.  In  our  days  we 
have  seen  above  the  Didots  themselves  working  their 
punches ;  and  one  of  them,  Henri,  founded  micros- 
copical characters  for  a  La  Rochefoucauld  about  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 


TYPE-FOUNDING — THE    FOUNT.  243 

We  have  referred  to  English  type-founders  of  the 
eighteenth  century  in  Chapter  V. 

The  type,  or  character  used  in  printing,  is  a  com- 
position of  lead  and  pure  antimony,  which,  melted, 
form  a  resisting  and  at  the  same  time  supple  mixture. 
Lead  alone  would  be  crushed,  and  the  first  printers 
often  suffered  in  making  their  experiments.  The  pro- 
portion of  the  mixture  is  four  of  lead  to  one  of 
antimony. 

The  matrix  is  combined  in  such  manner  that  the  eye — 
that  is  to  say,  the  part  of  the  character  intended  to 
produce  the  impression — and  also  the  shank  intended 
to  hold  the  letter  are  cast  together. 

The  letters,  once  founded  according  to  their  different 
forms,  are  afterwards  disposed  in  boxes  with  compart- 
ments, or  "  cases."  These  cases  serve  to  classify  the 
character  by  letters,  italics,  capitals,  lower  case,  punctua- 
tions, accents,  etc. 

As  we  have  said,  the  relation  of  letters  among  them- 
selves in  the  composition  of  a  language  is  called  the 
"fount."  For  example,  it  is  certain  that  the  Italian 
employs  the  letter  a  more  than  b,  the  letter  a  appearing 
in  nearly  every  word ;  a  compositor  to  compose  in  this 
language  should  therefore  have  more  of  a  than  of  b. 
The  relation  between  these  two  letters  and  all  the 
others  is  the  "  fount."  In  French  the  proportion  of  a 
fount  is  about  5,000  a  for  800  b,  3,000  c,  3,ooo  d^ 
11,000^,  etc.  The  fount  varies  with  the  languages.  In 
English  the  proportion  is  8,500  a  to  1, 600  b,  3,000  c, 
4,400  d,  etc. 

Before  1789  there  were  in  all  twenty  different 
"  bodies  "  of  letters  that  bore   fantastic   names.     The 


244 


THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 


"  Parisienne  "  was  the  smallest  size,  and  the  "  Grosse 
Nonpareille "  the  largest.  In  the  sixteenth  century  a 
character  called  "  Civilite "  was  invented.  It  sought 
to  imitate  fine  cursive  writing.  In  the  last  century 
this  idea  was  reproduced,  and  the  "  Batarde  Coulee," 
which    did    not    have    great    success,    was    made.      In 

II.  I. 


'sn   0}  u^viop 

3UI03        JOU 

3ABH  saniBU 
asoq.w    'sj3q 

-lU3UHBJaA3S 

Xq  tio  jaiBj 
pas  B3 JOUl 
UOIIEIOOSS'B 

jiatjjL  'sas 
-uadxa     ;s.ig 


buted  his  in- 
industry,  a 
probable 
source  of 
future  bene- 
fits, and  the 
other  a  cer- 
tain sum,  ap- 
poi n ted  to 
cover     the 


"saidoo  pa 
-^uudamips 
05  .Ci>(Dinb 
'asn  ;u3nb 
-3JJ  -ipqj  JO 
aouanbasuoD 
ui  'padoq 
aq  qDiq.w 
JO  'sjooqDS 
aqj    JO}    ua; 

!) 


The  general 
belief  is  that 
Fust,  initi- 
ated bj'  him 
into  the  se- 
crets of  the 
art  which  he 
had  just  in- 
vented, and 
struck    with 


-3UAV    sjajqd 

•SJ3 

-  UI  E  d       0  A\  ; 

-puaj-A'auoui 

ssaoojd   Avau 

JO      ;Bqi     oi 

siq  JO  suEaoi 

X[3A!SnpX3 

.fq      paqsn 

pa^iuiq    SEA\ 

-qnd        pEq 

aotyo      Jiaqi 

S.iaquajnf) 

}nq     IqoBq 

SjnoqsBJ^s 

-  u  a  p  .C  a  j\[ 

IE   aDuapisaj 

JO       a  m  B  u 

siq  3uunQ 

aqi       }daoxa 
J- 

S 

1 

the      defects 

trade    of   a 

of  the  blocks 

goldsmith, 

for  such  par- 

other   histo- 

ticular    pur- 

rians saj"  of  a 

pose,    con- 

banker;  and 

ceived       the 

they   formed 

idea  of  com- 

together    an 

posing  them 

association, 

with       sepa- 

to which  the 

rate    letters. 

one      contri- 

1 

English  types,  Joseph  Moxon  in  1669  had  eleven  sizes; 
Caslon  in  1734  had  thirty-eight. 

When  a  printer  wishes  to  compose  a  work,  he  first 
decides  in  which  body  he  will  print  it.  His  choice 
made,  he  places  in  the  compositors'  "  cases  " — that  is, 
in  the  boxes  placed  before  each  one  of  his  workmen — 
the  chosen  character,  with  its  italics,  capitals,  signs,  etc. 
Then  he  gives  them  the  "  copy,"  that  is  to  say  the 
manuscript  of  the  author  to  be  reproduced.     The  com- 


IMPOSITION.  245 

positors  take  a  "galley"  according  to  the  size  of  the 
book  ;  and,  letter  by  letter,  by  running  their  fingers 
through  the  different  cases,  they  place  side  by  side  the 
words  laboriously  composed,  and  necessaril}^  present- 
ing their  reverse,  so  that  they  will  show  their  proper 
face  when  printed. 

The  composition  terminated,  the  process  of  "  imposi- 
tion "  takes  place.  This  is  the  disposition  by  pages 
in  an  iron  chase,  in  such  manner  that  the  sheet  of 
paper  shall  be  printed  on  both  sides,  the  pages  exactly 
following  one  another. 

It  will  be  seen  by  the  specimen  on  the  preceding 
page  that  if  the  two  sheets  be  brought  together,  page  2 
of  II.  will  fall  exactly  opposite  page  i  of  I,  page  7 
opposite  page  8,  and  so  on.  Nothing  is  easier  than 
this  combination  for  folio,  quarto,  or  octavo  sizes,  but 
as  the  smaller  sizes  are  multiplied  even  to  i28mo,  tables 
are  necessary  to  prevent  error. 

The  imposition  is  completed  by  building  up  the  com- 
position in  a  chase  by  means  of  pieces  of  metal  called 
"  furniture,"  which  regulate  the  margins.  When  the 
whole  is  in  proper  place,  it  is  squeezed  up  and  adjusted 
by  means  of  sunk  reglets.  The  chase  may  now  be 
placed  under  the  press  without  fear  of  the  characters 
falling  out  or  getting  mixed. 

A  pressman  takes  a  "  proof"  after  having  rubbed 
the  relief  of  the  characters  with  ink,  and  on  this  proof 
are  corrected  the  author's  or  compositor's  faults  by 
indications  in  the  margin  by  understood  signs.  By  this 
amended  proof  the  compositor  amends  his  faults  one 
by  one  :  leaves  out  superfluous  characters,  puts  turned 
characters  straight,  spaces  or  draws  closer  the  lines,  etc. 


246  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

The  corrections  finished,  the  time  has  come  to  print. 
In  the  time  of  Geoffroy  Tory  this  operation  was  made 
as  we  shall  explain  ;  it  was  the  same  before  and  the 
same  after.  Two  pressmen  have  tempered  with  water 
the  tympan,  or  more  elastic  part  of  the  carriage,  against 
which  will  be  directed  in  good  time  the  blow  from  the 
type  ;  they  have  also  damped  the  paper  intended  for 
the  impression,  so  that  it  may  retain  the  greasy  ink 
with  which  the  characters  are  charged;  then  the  formes 
are  washed  before  putting  them  under  the  press. 

In  the  figure  which  we  reproduce,  which  dates  from 
about  1530,  we  see  the  workshop  of  Jodocus  Badius,  of 
Asch,  father-in-law  of  two  celebrated  printers,  Vascosan 
and  Robert  Estienne.  The  press  rolls — that  is  to  say, 
the  formes — have  been  placed  in  the  "  carriage,"  or 
movable  chase,  which,  coming  forward,  receives  the 
sheet  of  paper  and  the  ink,  and  returns  under  the 
press  to  receive  the  blow^  of  the  "  bar."  In  the  room, 
lighted  by  two  windows,  the  compositors  work.  In 
front  one  works  at  the  bar,  while  his  comrade  dis- 
tributes the  ink  on  the  "balls."  These  balls  are  leather 
pads,  on  which  the  greasy  ink,  made  of  lampblack  and 
oil,  is  spread,  to  more  easily  rub  the  forme  after  each 
blow.  Ordinarily  the  inker  had  two  functions  :  he 
prepared  the  ink,  distributed  it,  and  kept  his  eye  on 
the  printed  sheets  to  correct  faults,  blots,  and  difterence 
of  tint.  Here  the  workman  is  simply  occupied  by  the 
balls.  Printed  sheets  and  prepared  paper  are  on  a 
table  by  the  side  of  the  press.  This  press  is  composed 
of  the  rolling  chase,  the  tympan,  and  the  "  frisket,"  a 
smaller  tympan,  which  work  against  one  another.  The 
tympan,  we  have  said  above,  receives  directly  the  blow. 


PRESS   WORK    IN   THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTL'RY.      247 

And  it  was  so  for  nearly  four  centuries ;  the  mechanical 
means  of  our  days  have  a  Httle  changed  the  work,  but 
the  principle  is  always  the  same. 


Fig.  103.  —Mark  of  Jodocus  Radius  of  Asch,  representing  the  interior 
of  a  printing  office  about  1535.     Engraving  t)  la  cvoix  de  Lorraine. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  a  press 
cost  about  a  hundred  and  twenty-seven  crowns,  with 
its  diverse  utensils,  as  may  be  seen  in  an  unpublished 


248  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

piece  analysed  by  Dr.  Giraudet,  of  Tours,  in  a  very 
interesting  pamphlet :  Unc  Association  cCImprimeurs  et 
de  Lihraircs  de  Paris  Rc'fugie's  a  Tours  an  XVI'  Siecle. 
The  workshop  of  Jamet  Metayer,  of  Tours,  cost  a  rent 
of  eighty-three  crowns — about  twenty  pounds  of  current 
money. 

Workmen  were  then  paid  by  the  "day  ;"  and  it  came 
to  be  one  of  the  expressions  then  so  much  used  in 
manual  labour,  corresponding  to  the  sum  of  the  least 
work  of  a  good  workman.  M.  Ladeveze,  printer, 
thought  that  the  "  day"  represented  the  work  of  about 
twenty  thousand  Roman  or  Cicero  letters  employed 
by  a  compositor. 

With  us  the  "  day  "  of  compositors  and  pressmen  is 
differently  calculated.  The  latter  have  to  take  a  certain 
number  of  sheets. 

The  sheet,  composition  and  press  work,  cost  nearly 
seven  crowns,  or  nearly  two  pounds.  Jamet  Metayer 
paid  twenty  crowns  for  four  sheets  in  Italics ;  he 
demanded  three  months  for  the  work. 

The  primitive  presses  were  wooden  screw  presses, 
and  they  so  remained  until  the  beginning  of  this 
century,  when  Lord  Stanhope,  a  celebrated  electrician, 
author,  and  politician,  perfected  them  and  gave  his 
name  to  a  new  machine.  His  improvement  consisted  in 
that  the  bar  was  no  longer  fixed  to  the  vice,  but  to  a 
cylinder  outside,  A  counter- weight  brought  back  the 
platen  at  each  blow.  Pierre  Didot  had  previous!}'  made 
metal  platens.  In  1820  the  use  of  the  Stanhope  press 
commenced  in  France. 

England  had,  besides,  taken  a  preponderating  place 
in  typographical  invention.     The  printer  of  the   Times, 


PRINTING    PRESSES—PAPER.  249 

John  Walter,  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, seeking  to  pubHsh  his  journal  quicker,  associated 
himself  with  craftsmen  who  constructed  mechanical 
presses  for  him.  The  Didots  lost  no  time,  and  them- 
selves made  improvements. 

In  1848,  the  presses  of  the  ConstituttonncI,  thanks  to 
the  application  of  steam,  produced  twenty  thousand 
papers  an  hour.  In  our  time  there  are  machines  that 
print  only  on  one  side,  as  well  as  double  machines, 
printing  both  sides  at  once.  The  rotary  machines, 
with  endless  paper,  take  thirty-five  thousand  impres- 
sions an  hour.  In  the  newspaper  machines  of  Marinoni, 
the  great  inventor,  the  paper  is  unrolled,  printed,  cut, 
and  folded  without  leaving  the  machine,  and  falls  into 
a  place  from  which  it  is  taken  ready  for  the  subscriber. 
The  latest  perfection  of  the  printing  press  is  the  Walter 
press  and  the  rotary  machine  of  R.  Hoe  and  Co.,  of 
New  York,  extensively  used  throughout  the  world. 
The  elaborate  book  has  little  to  do  with  these  marvel- 
lous processes,  although  in  its  turn  it  largely  benefits 
by  the  improvement  of  the  printing  machine. 

It  is  apart  from  our  purpose  to  speak  at  length  on 
the  manufacture  of  paper.  It  is  certain  that  it  was  well 
made  before  the  invention  of  printing,  for  most  of  the 
accounts  of  the  fifteenth  century  are  written  on  linen 
paper,  very  resisting  and  well  sized.  Later  on  rags  were 
used  in  this  manufacture  ;  and  here,  in  a  few  words,  is 
how  paper  was  made  in  the  mould,  or  "  hand-made  " 
before  the  invention  of  machinery  for  the  purpose  :— 

The  rags,  having  been  thoroughly  cleansed,  were  put 
into  vats,  where  they  were  worked  up  under  a  beating 
press  until  they  were  reduced  to  pulp.     This  pulp  was 


250  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

thrown  into  hot  water  and  stirred  until  the  mixture 
was  uniformly  made.  Then  a  mould  of  fine  wire  cloth, 
fixed  upon  a  wooden  frame,  and  having  a  "  deckle  "  to 
determine  the  size  of  the  sheet,  was  taken;  in  the 
middle  of  this  frame  was  disposed,  also  in  brass  wire,  a 


Fig.  104. — Paper-making.     Workman  engaged  on  the  tub  with  the 
frame  of  wires.     Engraving   bj'  Jost  Amman. 

factory  mark,  intended  to  appear  in  white  in  the  sheet 
of  paper,  and  called  the  "water  mark."  This  mould 
was  dipped  into  the  vat  of  pulp  and  drawn  out  again. 
After  gently  shaking  it  to  and  fro  in  a  horizontal 
position,  the  fibres  of  the  pulp  became  so  connected  as 
to  form  one    uniform    fabric ;   and    the   water  escaped 


PAPER   MANUFACTURE.  25  I 

through  the  wires.  The  deckle  was  then  removed 
from  the  mould,  and  the  sheet  of  paper  turned  oft"  upon 
a  felt,  in  a  pile  with  many  others,  a  felt  intervening 
between  each  sheet,  and  the  whole  subjected  to  great 
pressure,  in  order  to  absorb  the  superfluous  water. 
After  being  dried  and  pressed  without  the  felts,  the 
sheets  were  dipped  into  a  tub  of  size  and  again  pressed 
to  remove  surplus  size.  This  primitive  method  of 
paper-making  is  represented  in  fig.  104,  and  the  same 
principle  is  still  in  use  for  the  production  of  hand-made 
paper.  Machinery  has  effected  many  improvements 
and  economies  in  the  production 
of  woven  paper. 

China  and  Japan  have  their 
special  paper  manufacture.  In 
Japan  the  material  employed  is 
the  bark  of  the  luonts  papifera 
sativa. 

According    to     their    fineness, 

size,   and  weight,  papers  have  re-       Balance  used  by  Jenson, 

ceived   different  names,  proceed-  at  Venice. 

ing  from  the  water  mark. 

Faust  at  Mayence  used  paper  marked  with  a  bull's 
head.  Jenson  at  Venice  used  a  balance  of  which  the 
form  varied.  This  latter  came  from  a  mill  which 
furnished  Vicenza,  Perugia,  and  Rome.  Jenson  used, 
besides  a  crown,  a  cardinal's  hat. 

The  bull's  head  underwent  transformations,  it  had 
stars  and  roses,  and  was  special  to  Germany,  and  it 
may  sometimes  be  found  in  Italy. 

The  wires  and  bridges  served  to  determine  the  size 
of  a  book.     Looking  at  a  folio  leaf  against  the  light, 


t^ 


252  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

the  wires  will  be  seen  to  be  horizontal,  and  the  bridges 
vertical.  In  quarto  they  will  be  reversed,  the  paper 
having  been  folded  in  four  instead  of  in  two.  The 
bridges  become  horizontal.  They  return  to  the  vertical 
in  octavo,  and  so  on. 

As  for  ink,  it  was  from  the  beginning  a  composition 
of  lampblack  and  oil  of  different  quality  and  nature, 
mixed  with  resin  to  obtain  a  greater  and  quicker  dry- 
ness. Ink  for  engravings  was  more  carefully  made. 
For  coloured  inks  various  powders  are  mixed  with  the 
oil  and  resin,  and  a  title  in  red  and  black  has  to  go 
through  the  press  twice  :  once  for  the  red  and  once  for 
the  black. 

From  the  above  it  can  be  understood  that  illustra- 
tions in  relief  can  easily  be  introduced  into  the 
composition,  whether  in  combination  with  text  or  in 
separate  pages.  Another  question  presents  itself:  Did 
the  old  printers  employ  casting,  or  did  they  print 
directly  from  the  wood  block  itself?  In  other  words, 
the  block  having  been  cut,  did  they  make  with  it  a 
mould  into  which  melted  metal  could  be  poured  to 
obtain  a  more  resistant  relief?  The  fact  is  difficult  to 
elucidate.  It  appears  to-day  that  Simon  Vostre,  Verard, 
and  others  printed  relief  engravings  on  metal,  but  were 
they  cut  directly  or  obtained  by  casting,  as  they  are 
now^  ?     It  cannot  be  determined  yet. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 


BOOKBINDING. 


The  binding  of  the  first  printed  books — Ancient  German  bindings — 
Binding  in  tlie  time  of  Louis  XII. — Italian  bindings —Aldus — 
Maioli — Grolier — Francis  I. — Henri  II.  and  Diane  de  Poitiers — 
Catherine  de  Medicis — Henri  III. — The  Eves — The  "fanfares" 
— Louis  XIII. — Le  Gascon — Florimond  Badier— Louis  XIV. — 
Morocco  leathers — Cramoisy — The  bindings  of  the  time  of 
Louis  XIV. — The  regency — Pasdeloup — The  Deromes — Dubuisson 
— Thouvenin — Lesne — The  nineteenth  century — English  binders — 
Roger;Payne — Francis  Bedford, 

EADING  the  reader  now  towards 
the  final  perfection  of  the  Book  : 
printing,  which  had  stirred  up 
and  reversed  so  many  things, 
created,  so  to  speak,  the  art  of 
binding.  Previously  the  binder 
was  simply  a  workman  sewing 
together  the  leaves  of  a  manu- 
script, with  no  science  or  device  but  to  clasp  the  whole 
together  solidly  with  cord  and  string.  As  luxury  in- 
creased the  old  binder  was  no  longer  thought  of.  On 
the  wooden  boards  which  closed  the  Book,  jewellers 
encrusted  their  wares,  lavishing  ivory  and  precious 
stones  to  the  taste  of  the  amateur  or  the  bookseller. 
Generally  these  works  covered  books  of  precious  minia- 
tures,  the    Hora^,  or    manuscripts   that    were    deemed 


254  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

worthy  of  such  magnificent  clothing,  rarely  copies 
without  importance.  Printing  at  once  disordered  the 
tribe  of  copyists  as  well  as  the  binders  did  jewellers. 
The  demand  increasing,  rich  bindings  were  soon 
abandoned,  and  each  bookseller  applied  himself  to  the 
work,  or  at  least  covered  in  his  own  house  books  in- 
tended for  sale.  The  fashion  was  not  then  to  expose 
for  sale,  as  now,  unbound  books.  Purchasers  wanted 
an  article  easy  to  handle,  and  which  they  were  not 
obliged  to  return  for  ulterior  embellishment. 

So  to  the  public  were  presented  the  works  laboriously 
composed  by  Gutenberg,  Schoefifer,  and  Fust,  somewhat 
after  the  manner  of  manuscripts,  which  they  pretended 
to  imitate,  with  their  solid  wooden  boards  covered  with 
pig  or  calfskin.  At  the  four  corners,  copper  nails,  with 
large  heads,  prevented  rubbing  against  the  shelves  of 
the  bookcase,  for  at  that  time  books  were  ranged  on 
their  sides,  and  not  as  they  are  to-day.  We  must 
return  to  the  bibliomaniac  of  the  "  Ship  of  Fools  "  to  get 
an  idea  of  these  depositories ;  before  him  may  be  seen 
ranged  on  a  desk  large  folios,  with  nails  on  their  sides, 
in  the  shelves,  so  defying  the  dust,  in  place  of  being 
placed  upright  on  their  edges,  which  rendered  them 
liable  to  spots  and  stains.     (See    fig.  23.) 

Unhappily  the  wooden  sides  had  in  themselves  a 
germ  of  destruction,  the  worm,  capable  first  of  reducing 
the  sides  to  powder  and  then  ravaging  the  body  of  the 
work,  the  ligatures  and  cords.  Certain  preparations 
destroy  the  insect,  but  the  precaution  often  has  no 
effect,  and  it  is  thus  that  the  disappearance  of  volumes 
formerly  so  abundant,  but  almost  impossible  to  find 
now,  may  be  explained. 


BOOKBINDING.  255 

From  the  beginning  the  operations  of  the  binder  were 
what  they  still  are,  except  for  improvements.  They 
consist  in  the  collation  of  the  sheets  of  a  book,  folding 
them,  beating  them  to  bring  them  together  and  give 
them  cohesion,  and  sewing  them,  first  together,  then  on 


Fig.   105. — Bookbinder's  shop  in  the  sixteenth  century.     Engraving 
by  Jost  Amman. 

the  cords  or  strings,  which  form  the  five  or  six  bands 
seen  on  the  backs.  Primitively  these  cords  were  united 
to  the  wooden  boards,  and  over  both  was  placed  a  re- 
sistant skin,  on  which  from  relief  or  metal  engravings 
were  struck  the  most  pleasing  decorative  subjects. 
Pigskin,   white  and   fine,   lent  itself,  especially  among 


256  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

the  Germans,  to  these  fine  editions  ;  and  although  they 
were  issued  in  great  number,  the  wooden  boards  have 
not  permitted  them  all  to  exist  in  our  time. 

The  most  ancient  that  we  are  able  to  cite  are  German 
works  of  the  time  of  Louis  XI.  ;  they  are  very  strong 
and  coarse.  The  cords  in  them  form  an  enormous  and 
massive  projection.  The  inside  of  the  board  was  often 
without  lining  of  paper  or  stuff".  In  the  case  of  fine 
editions  a  sombre  velvet  was  sometimes  used,  such 
as  Verard  used  to  bind  the  books  of  the  father  of 
Francis  I.,  as  we  have  before  said. 

Art  did  not  enter  into  these  works  of  preserva- 
tion until  about  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  with 
arms  and  emblems.  At  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  some  bindings  were  ornamented  for  Louis  XIL 
and  the  Queen,  Anne  de  Bretagne  ;  but  not  more  than 
five  or  six  specimens  remain.  They  are  of  coarse  aspect. 
The  workman  who  tooled  the  binding  here  reproduced 
from  the  curious  example  of  M.  Dutuit,  of  Rouen,  has 
thrown  his  subjects  one  upon  another.  Arms,  por- 
cupines, ermines,  are  treated  so  as  to  be  confusing,  and 
form  a  medley  that  is  not  pleasing.  In  recalling  the 
delightful  borders  of  Vostre  and  Pigouchet,  contempora- 
ries of  this  mediocre  work,  it  is  astonishing  to  see 
the  degree  of  inferiority  reached  by  a  profession  that 
should  be  inspired  by  graceful  subjects  of  decoration. 

It  happened  that  France  again  found  in  Italy  masters 
capable  of  revealing  secrets  of  composition  and  arrange- 
ment to  enable  her  to  strike  out  a  new  road.  The  Italian 
wars  would  not  have  had  these  artistic  results  if  it  had 
not  been  for  the  enormous  sums  that  they  swallowed 
up.     The    curious  part  of  the  enterprise    was    that    a 


JEAN   GROLIER.  257 

war    treasurer,  a   financier,   employed    by   the    French 


Fig.  106. — Binding  lor  Louis  XII.     Collection  of  M.  Dutuit,  of  Rouen. 

kings    in    these  expeditions,   through    his   relations  of 
taste  and  friendship  with  the  Alduses  of  Venice,  brought 

17 


258  THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 

to  France  the  love  of  sumptuous  bindings,  of  editions 
superbly  clothed.  He  was  named  Jean  Grolier,  that 
\  bibliophile  of  the  sixteenth  century,  who  was,  above  all 
others,  even  King  Francis,  the  first  to  appreciate  the  art 
of  binding.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  art,  for  if  better 
had  not  been  done  before,  it  may  safely  be  said  that 
nothing  better  has  been  done  since ;  and  the  books  oi 
Grolier  remain  as  the  most  perfect  and  most  admirable 
types  of  this  kind  of  decoration. 

Born  of  an  Italian  family  established  at  Lyons,  where 
most  of  his  relatives  did  a  great  business,  Jean  Grolier 
had  the  good  fortune  to  succeed  his  father,  Stephen 
Grolier,  treasurer  of  the  Duke  of  Milan.  He  became 
in  his  turn  Minister  of  Finances,  and  was  called  to  ac- 
company the  kings  in  their  expeditions  in  Italy.  The 
situation  of  the  treasurers  during  these  campaigns  was 
important ;  they  handled  the  pence  levied  with  great 
trouble  in  the  cities  of  France  "  for  making  war."  Many 
abused  their  trust,  and  were  punished,  and  among  others 
fhe  Lallemants,  whom  documents  show  us  to  have 
been  in  connection  with  Grolier,  and  who  suffered,  with 
Semblancay,  the  most  terrible  trials  of  the  time. 

Italian  art  gave  then  a  free  course  in  the  decoration 
of  books.  Of  the  interior  we  have  spoken  in  our  first 
chapters  on  the  wood  engravings  ;  for  the  exterior,  the 
cover  of  the  volume,  foliage,  golden  flowers  worked 
with  a  hot  iron,  and  polychromatic  compartments  ob- 
tained by  coloured  pastes  were  multiplied.  Thus  was 
produced  on  the  outside  that  which  it  was  not  sought 
to  obtain  on  the  inside,  the  variation  of  tints  so  select 
among  the  Italians,  and  so  forsaken  since  the  invention 
of  printing.      In  the  midst  of  these  literary  men  was  a 


MAIOLI   AND   GROLIER.  259 

lover  of  books  and  fine  connoisseur  who,  not  content 
with  choosing  the  best  editions,  such  as  those  of 
Ferrara,  Venice,  and  Basle,  bound  them  superbly,  with 
compartments  of  admirable  tone,  and  had  his  name  and 
device  inscribed  on  the  sides  in  the  fashion  of  the 
time.  He  was  named  Thomas  Maioli,  and  following  v 
the  custom  of  the  amateurs  of  the  time,  he  offered 
the  enjoyment  of  his  library  to  his  friends.  "  Tho. 
Maioli  et  amicorum,"  he  inscribed,  as  did  later  Grolier, 
as  also  did  others,  but  he  somewhat  modified  the  en- 
thusiasm of  his  friendship  by  a  sceptical  device,  "  In- 
gratis  servire  nephas,"  which  might  very  well  be 
the  cr}'  of  the  owner  of  books  betrayed  by  his 
borrowers. 

Maioli  did  not  alone  use  these  devices  :  he  had  also 
a  macaronic  phrase  of  which  the  sense  is  not  ver}/ 
clear:  "  Inimici  mei  mea  michi,  non  me  michi."  He 
also  sometimes  used  his  monogram,  which  v/as  com- 
posed of  all  the  letters  of  his  name. 

The  relations  of  Grolier  with  this  unknown  and 
mysterious  bibliophile,  whose  name  is  not  always 
found  outside  his  volumes,  are  not  doubtful.  Brunet 
possessed  a  volume  that  had  belonged  to  Maioli  and 
had  passed  through  the  hands  of  Grolier.  What  better 
proof  could  be  wished  of  the  communion  of  ideas  and 
tastes  between  the  two  collectors  ? 

But  these  amateurs  were  not  alone.  Beside  them 
were  princes  and  great  lords,  lay  and  ecclesiastic. 
From  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century 
bookbinding  had  received  an  enormous  impulse  from 
the  tastes  and  the  predilections  for  these  lofty  fancies. 
And  it  cannot  be  ascribed  to  the  simple  skill  of  the 


26o  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

workmen  experimenting  in  that  line.  In  the  century 
that  saw  ItaUan  artists  occupied  in  making  designs  for 
mounted  plates  and  painting  beautiful  ladies,  the  courte- 
sans of  Venice  could  not  be  alarmed  at  finding  them 
painting  models  for  bindings,  with  compartments  of 
varied  tone  and  style.  Maioli  affected  white  on  a 
dark  background,  that  is  to  say  on  a  background  of 
dark  leather.  He  made  scrolls  of  foliage  in  white  or 
clear  paste  with  a  very  happy  effect. 

This  was  the  time  when  Grolier  travelled  in  Italy, 
in  the  suite  of  the  French,  and  when  he  began  his 
collections.  He  had  adopted  as  his  heraldic  emblem 
the  gooseberry  bush,  which  in  French  came  very  near 
to  his  name — groseillier ;  and  his  motto  was  "  Nee 
herba  nee  arbor"  ("  Neither  tree  nor  herb  "),  explicative 
of  the  moderation  of  his  wealth.  He  was  soon  in  con- 
nection with  the  Alduses,  and  through  them  with  the 
principal  learned  men  and  binders  of  the  time,  for  it 
was  not  in  the  offices  of  the  Manutiuses  that  could  be 
found  workmen,  like  those  of  the  Chamber  of  Accounts 
in  France,  obliged  to  swear  that  they  did  not  know  how 
to  read.  The  master  was  not  hindered  by  details  of 
difference  of  language,  and  it  followed  that  his  workmen 
understood  Greek  and  Latin,  for  he  often  gave  them 
instruction  in  those  languages.  How  far  off  these 
erudite  and  conscientious  workmen  appear  to-day ! 

Following  the  fashion,  Grolier  put  his  name  on  the 
upper  side  of  his  books — "  Jo.  Grolierii  et  amicorum  " — 
in  gold  letters,  and  on  the  other  side  a  pious  motto, 
the  sense  of  which  was  a  hope  often  uttered  by  the 
financiers  of  the  sixteenth  century,  imprisoned  and 
hung  every  instant  :   "  Portio  mea,  Domine,  sit  in  terra 


grolier's  bindings.  261 

viventium."  Generally  all  the  Grolier  books  which 
came  from  the  Alduses  have  the  name  on  the  upper 
side  and  the  motto  on  the  other  side  ;  the  title  was 
placed  above  the  name,  and  often  disposed  in  rows. 
Some  large  volumes  had  the  cover  ornamented  with  an 
architectural  design,  like  the  Jamblichus  of  the  Libri  col- 
lection, which  had  on  the  front  the  facade  of  a  temple, 
with  the  title  in  rows  on  the  door.  This  volume  was 
printed  by  Aldus  in  15 16,  and  probably  decorated  by 
him  for  the  account  of  the  great  French  amateur. 

Jean  Grolier  is  said  to  have  himself  designed  some 
of  the  subjects  of  his  ornaments,  and  their  perfection  in- 
dicates an  active  and  enlightened  supervision.  On  his 
return  to  France,  where  he  had  a  house  near  the  Porte 
de  Bucy,  he  was  put  in  relation  with  Geoftroy  Tory, 
the  artist  best  fitted  to  understand  him,  and  who  was 
at  once  painter,  engraver,  printer,  and  binder.  It  was 
there  that,  in  the  leisure  of  his  financial  functions,  be- 
tween two  projects  of  revictualling  the  forts  of  Outre 
Seine  and  Yonne,  Grolier  invented  combinations,  sought 
interlacings,  and  laid  out  foliage.  Tory  himself  teaches 
us  these  works  in  combination.  He  invented  antique 
letters  for  Grolier,  he  tells  us  in  his  Chmnpjleiiry .  It 
was  for  him,  too,  that  he  interwove  so  finely  his 
compartments  for  binding,  and  that  he  reproduced  the 
delightful  ornaments  of  his  books  of  hours  in  golden 
scrolls. 

As  we  have  said,  Grolier  placed  his  titles  on  the 
sides  of  his  books  on  account  of  the  arrangement  of  the 
works  on  the  shelves  of  the  library  where  they  were 
laid.  For  this  reason  also  the  back  was  neglected,  and 
no  ornament  used  upon  it ;  thick  and  heavy  with  its 


262  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

projecting  bands,  without  decoration  between  the  bands, 
this  part  of  the  bound  volume  was  a  Ivind  of  waste  in 
a  splendidly  cultivated  garden.  The  profusion  of  books 
brought  about  a  revolution.  There  was  no  longer  room 
to  place  on  their  sides  the  innumerable  books  that 
were  produced  ;  they  were  then  placed  on  their  edges, 
as  now,  and  the  back  also  was  decorated.  For  this 
the  bands  were  made  to  disappear,  and  replaced  by 
decorative  subjects  in  compartments  like  the  sides. 
Then  with  Grolier  the  bands  reappeared,  and  the 
title  was  placed  between  them,  as  it  still  is. 

The  books  of  Grolier  have  been  divided,  according 
to  their  production,  in  four  or  five  principal  classes,  in 
which  they  may  always  be  placed.  First  were  the 
works  ornamented  in  compartments,  gilt,  with  scrolls 
in  full  gold  ;  then  the  same  with  the  scrolls  azures,  that 
is  to  say  equally  gilt,  but  having  parallel  lines  like  the 
azure  of  heraldry.  Following  comes  the  school  of 
Geoffroy  Tory,  with  gilt  compartments  in  the  style  ot 
the  great  French  decorator ;  last  the  polychromatic 
bindings,  in  which,  by  the  aid  of  colour  or  mastic,  the 
alternating  tones  are  mixed.  Grolier  also  had  some 
mosaic  bindings,  composed  of  little  pieces  of  leather 
connected  by  incrustation  or  paste,  pure  Italian  bind- 
ings ;  but  these  were  not  numerous,  especially  if  com- 
pared with  those  conceived  in  the  manner  of  Geoffroy 
Tory. 

One  of  these  latter  works  is  here  reproduced  from 
one  of  the  beautiful  books  in  the  collection  of  M.  Dutuit. 
This  copy  has  the  back  flat,  and  the  interlacings  of  the 
decoration  are  most  complicated  and  clever. 

Grolier  got  his  Levant  moroccos  through  the  dealers 


Fig.   107. — Binding  for  Grolier  in  the  collection  of  M.  Dutuit. 


264  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

of  Venice,  to  make  sure  of  the  material  he  em- 
ployed. 

Born  in  1479,  the  Treasurer-general  of  Outre  Seine 
lived  until  1565.  In  1563  an  original  manuscript  shows 
him  much  occupied  with  finance  at  over  eighty-four  years 
of  age  ;  but  his  passion  for  bindings  had  cooled  down,  for 
few  books  signed  with  his  name  are  found  the  manu- 
facture of  which -could  descend  to  the  son  of  Henri  II. 
After  great  trials,  after  having  seen  Semblangay  suffer 
at  Montfaucon,  John  Lallemand  beheaded,  and  himselt 
having  come  nearly  to  losing  life  and  fortune  at  one 
blow,  Grolier  passed  away  quietly  in  his  house,  having 
collected  most  of  the  fine  books  of  the  time  and  many 
curious  medals.  Christopher  de  Thou,  his  friend  and 
confrere  in  the  love  of  books,  had  saved  his  reputation 
before  the  Parliament  of  Paris.  After  his  death  his 
library  was  transported  to  the  Hotel  de  Vic,  and  from 
there  dispersed  in  1675,  a  hundred  years  after. 

Thus  from  Italian  art  came  French  binding,  still  re- 
maining original.  The  kings  did  not  fail  to  follow  the 
movement,  and  even  to  anticipate  it,  thanks  to  the  means 
at  their  disposal.  We  have  seen  Francis  I.  at  work 
with  the  energy  of  an  artisan  at  least ;  but  Geoffroy  Tory 
was  his  principal  inspirer,  and  who  knows  but  that  he 
was  the  chief  operative  for  the  prince,  as  for  the  great 
financier  ? 

We  have  said  that  Louis  XII.  knew  nothing  of  fine 
bindings.  During  his  travels  in  Italy  he  had  received 
presentation  copies  of  magnificently  covered  books,  and 
among  others  that  of  Faitstiis  Andre/inus,  that  was 
bound  in  calf  in  honour  of  the  King.  He,  who  was  so 
little  expert  in  fine  arts,  purchased  the  entire  library  of 


Fig.   lo8. — Binding  for  Francis  I.,  with  the  arms  of  France  and  the 
salamander. 


266 


THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 


the  Sire  de  la  Gruthuse,  and  substituted  his  own  emblems 
for  those  of  the  high  and  mighty  lord.  Francis  I.,  with 
innate  sentiment  for  masterpieces  and  the  powerful 
protection  he  had  given  them,  did  not  allow  the  experi- 


Fig.    109. — Mark   of  Guyot  Marchant.  printer  and   bookbinder.     He 
published  the  Daiisc  Macabre  of  1485. 

ments  of  Grolier  to  pass  unnoticed.  The  King  did 
not  desire  to  be  behind  the  treasurer,  and  the  workmen 
were  put  to  the  task.  He  adopted  the  salamander, 
which  emblem   he   used   on   his   castles  and  furniture 


Fig.  no.— Binding  for  litnii  II.,  w  illi  the  "IT'  and  crescents. 


268  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

and  the  liveries  of  his  people  ;  he  lavished  it  also  on  the 
sides  of  his  books.  On  the  side  the  "  F  "  is  often  seen 
crowned,  then  the  emblem  of  France  and  the  collar  of 
St.  Michael.  In  the  binding  of  which  a  facsimile  is 
here  given,  Geoffroy  Tor}^  has  singularly  inspired  the 
gilder,  if  he  did  not  himself  make  the  design.  For  it 
must  not  be  thought  that  this  work  is  done  at  a  single 
blow  by  means  of  an  engraved  plate  or  a  block.  On 
the  contrary,  every  line  is  impressed  by  the  hot  tool 
that  the  workman  applies  by  hand  to  the  gold  laid  on 
in  advance,  making  it,  so  to  speak,  enter  into  the  skin 
or  morocco.  There  is  the  art ;  blocks  serve  only  for 
commercial  bindings,  quickly  impressed  and  intended 
for  ordinary  purchasers. 

Under  the  reign  of  Francis  I.  the  binders  were  the 
booksellers,  as  Verard  and  Vostre  were.  The  King  was 
ordinarily  served  by  a  publisher  named  Pierre  Roffet, 
and  he  frequently  figures  in  accounts  that  have  been 
preserved.  Roffet  not  only  bound,  but  it  appears  that 
he  rebound  books  to  patterns  which  the  King  desired. 
Philip  Lenoir  and  Guyot  Marchant  were  also  royal 
workmen.  The  latter,  whose  mark  is  here  reproduced, 
frequently  added  to  it  the  saints  Crispin  and  Crispinian, 
patrons  of  the  leather-dressers,  who  prepared  the  leather 
for  the  binder. 

The  discoveries  of  Grolier  did  not  allow  the  binders 
much  time  to  be  idle.  Thousands  of  volumes  were 
then  destroyed  to  make  the  boards  for  sides.  From 
this  many  discoveries  are  made  in  our  days  by  pulling 
to  pieces  sixteenth  century  work,  unknown  playing 
cards,  and  early  printed  works.  To  mention  only  one 
example,  twenty  leaves  of  the  "  Perspective  "  of  Viator 


pig^  III.— Binding  for  Henri  II.  (Mazarine  Library) 


2/0  THE    PRINTED    BOOK. 

were  discovered  in  the  National  Library  of  Paris.  The 
board  thus  formed  was  covered  indifferently  with  sheep- 
skin, parchment,  calf,  morocco,  or  goatskin  ;  the  books 
were  sewn  on  raised  or  sunk  bands,  according  to  the 
owner's  taste  ;  the  edges  were  gilt,  sometimes  gauffered, 
and  designs  often  impressed  upon  them  to  match  those 
of  the  sides.  In  large  folios  wooden  boards  were  still 
used,  more  solid,  and  protected  from  rubbing  by  nails 
in  relief.  But  the  inside  of  the  cover  was  as  yet 
only  covered  with  paper.  Leather  linings  were  ver}' 
uncommon. 

The  reign  of  Henri  II.  increased  yet  more  the  import- 
ance of  bindings;  it  was  the  time  when  Grolier  collected, 
and  clever  artists  came  from  all  parts.  Geoffroy  Tory 
had  given  the  best  models  for  letters  and  interlacings. 
The  Queen,  Catherine,  derived  from  her  parents  the  taste 
for  decoration  in  gold  and  colours,  and  patronised  the 
artists  called  by  her  from  the  court  of  Florence  ;  and 
the  favourite,  Diane  de  Poitiers,  Duchess  of  Valentinois, 
rivalled  her  in  luxury  and  expenditure.  Henri  II.  in 
the  decoration  of  his  castles,  as  well  as  his  books,  in- 
troduced equivocal  emblems,  of  which  the  signification 
may  be  doubtful,  but  those  of  his  mistress  may  be 
recognised,  not  those  of  the  legitimate  Queen.  He  inter- 
laced two  reversed  "  D's  "  by  an  "H,"  in  the  form  shown 
in  the  border  on  the  preceding  page.  Strictly  speaking, 
we  ought  to  see  there  two  "  C's  "  back  to  back  ;  but  as 
we  find  the  "  D  "  on  all  the  bindings  displaying  the 
arms  of  Diana,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  and  Queen 
Catherine  doubted  less  than  anybody.  Other  emblems 
of  Diana  are  to  be  found  in  the  arcs  and  crescents  that 
are  plentifully  displa3'ed.     The   library  of  Diana   was 


BINDINGS   OF   HENRI    II.  2/1 

large,  owing  to  the  King  not  hesitating  to  tal<e  valuable 


Fig.   112.-    Italian  binding  for  Catlierine  dc  Medicis,  with  tlie 
initials  "  C.  C" 

books  from  the  public  collections  for  her.    Two  centuries 
after  her  death  it  was  dispersed,  and  the  greater  part  ol 


■Z/Z 


THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 


the  books  belonging  to  the  national  collections  were  re- 
stored on  the  deaths  of  those  who  then  purchased  them. 
Hence  the  largest  number  of  the  bindings  of  Henri  II. 
and  Diana  of  Poitiers  will  be  found  in  the  National 
Library  of  Paris. 

Queen  Catherine  also  had  special  patterns  with  a 
monogram  identical  with  the  double  "  D "  mentioned 
above,  but  the  branches  of  the  "  C  "  were  a  little  longer 
than  the  branches  of  the  "  H  ;  "  she  also  used  a  "  K  " 
on  the  sides  of  her  books.  The  specimen  which  we 
reproduce  is  a  purely  Italian  work. 

From  kings  and  queens  the  fashion  passed  to  the 
great  lords,  it  having  come  to  the  kings  and  queens  from 
a  private  individual.  The  Constable  Anne  de  Montmo- 
rency adorned  his  bindings  with  a  cross  and  spread  eagle. 
Among  the  amateurs  of  binding  of  the  sixteenth,  seven- 
teenth, and  eighteenth  centuries  using  distinctive  marks, 
we  may  mention  Philip  Desportes,  the  poet,  who  used 
two  ^  enlaced,  as  did  also  Superintendent  Fouquet 
in  the  seventeenth  century.  The  brothers  Dupuy 
adopted  the  double  A,  arranged  as  a  star.  Colbert 
had  a  curled  snake  {coluber  for  Colbert !),  the  Gondis 
two  masses  of  arms,  Madame  de  Pompadour  three 
towers,  etc.  Fouquet  beside  the  $  used  a  squirrel 
on  some  of  his  bindings. 

In  Germany,  Count  Mansfeldt  adopted  the  orna- 
mental style  with  arms,  of  which  a  specimen  is  here 
given  ;  and  Marc  Laurin  de  Watervliet  also  decorated 
and  dedicated  his  books  to  his  friends,  using  the  motto 
"  Virtus  in  arduo."  Among  the  lords  of  the  French 
courts  who  favoured  polychromatic  ornament  and  bold 
compositions  were  the  young  Valois,  Louis  de  Sainte 


''2^iiigilji    </ti 


Fig.  113.- 


Binding  with  the  arms  of  Mansfeldt,  with  azure  sc-.oll  work, 
from  the  Didot  collection. 


18 


274  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

Maure,   Marquis  of  Nesle,  and   Henri  de  Guise,  called 
"  Le  balafre." 

Charles  IX.  had  his  emblems  and  devices,  the  double 
"  C"  crowned  the  legend  "  Pietate  et  justitia,"  but  his 
brother,  Henri  III.,  loved  the  decoration  of  books  more 
than  he  did.  The  passion  of  the  King  for  miniatyres 
which  he  cut  out  of  books  is  known  ;  this  passion  for 
golden  things  he  repeated  on  bindings,  for  which  he 
chose  special  designs.  Henri  III.  was  an  amateur  of 
dances  of  death  ;  he  visited  cemeteries,  attended  funerals, 
and  took  a  death's-head  for  his  emblem.  This  emblem 
was  not  his  invention  ;  long  before  him  Marot  had 
addressed  an  epigram  to  a  lady  in  which  he  brought 
love  and  death  into  close  conjunction.  However  that 
may  be,  the  King  chose  skeletons  and  penitents'  tears 
to  ornament  his  books.  He  also  tolerated  diamonds, 
although  he  absolutely  prohibited  them  in  the  clothing 
of  ladies  or  fixed  the  number  pro  rata  with  the  rank  of 
the  authorised  person.  There  was  in  this  prince  a  sin- 
gular mixture  of  taste  and  artistic  acuteness  by  the  side 
of  a  mania  or  hallucination  which  was  reflected  on  the 
most  intimate  objects  of  his  apparel  or  of  his  furniture. 
Thus  if  we  find,  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
a  death's-head  on  the  sides  or  the  back  of  a  volume, 
the  binding  is  of  the  period  of  Henri  III. 

The  binders  of  his  time  are  known  by  the  mention 
that  is  made  of  them  in  the  royal  accounts ;  the  Eves 
were  the  most  celebrated  among  all  of  them.  Nicholas 
>^Eve  was  charged  with  the  binding  of  the  Statutes  of 
the  Order  of  St.  Esprit,  with  which  the  King  gratified 
his  friends.  Mention  of  this  work  is  found  in  the  Clair- 
ambault  manuscripts,  where  we  read,  "To  Nicholas  Eve, 


■  i,  Z,iSo„,i  i,t_ 


Fig.    114. — Sixteenth  century  binding,  called  a  la  Jaii/dre,'.^  In  the 
Diituit  collection. 


276  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

washer  and  binder  of  books  and  bookseller  to  the  King, 
forty-seven  and  a  half  escus  for  washing,  gilding,  and 
squaring  the  edges  of  forty-two  books  of  statutes 
and  ordinances  of  the  Order,  bound  and  covered  with 
orange  Levant  morocco,  enriched  on  one  side  with  the 
arms  of  the  King,  fully  gilt,  and  on  the  other  of  France 
and  Poland,  with  monograms  at  the  four  corners,  and 
the  rest  flames,  with  orange  and  blue  ribbons,"  etc. 

Louise  de  Lorraine,  wife  of  Henri  III.,  counted  for 
little  in  the  life  of  her  husband  ;  nevertheless  she  had 
a  certain  number  of  books  decorated  with  their  united 
escutcheons. 

>  The  bindings  attributed  to  Eve  were  decorated  all 
over  the  sides  and  back  with  mterlacing  patterns  of 
geometrical  character,  the  spaces  between  the  parallel 
lines  and  in  the  middle  of  the  figures  left  at  first  quite 
blank,  but  afterwards  filled  in  with  palm  branches  and 
wreaths  of  foliage  ;  to  these  delicate  and  elaborate  yet 
brilliant  toolings  have  been  given  the  name  of  bindings 
a  la  fanfare.  This  designation  requires  explanation, 
and  is  a  good  example  of  the  grotesque  style  adopted 
by  modern  amateurs  in  their  appellations. 

The  fine  work  of  that  time  prepared  for  the  coming 
in  the  seventeenth  century — about  1620 — of  the  works 
of  Le  Gascon,  or  at  least  for  the  artist  with  whom 
in  our  days  are  connected  the  works  of  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIII.  Under  Henri  IV.  the  fleur-de-lys  occu- 
pied most  of  the  covers  of  the  royal  books,  from  vellum 
to  Levant  morocco  ;  works  in  this  class  had  nothing  very 
remarkable.  The  first  years  of  Louis  XIII.  revealed 
a  new  process,  inspired  by  the  Eves.  Le  Gascon 
embroidered    delightfully    on    the    fanfare    ornaments ; 


^  .  -^  i/jJir/S 


Fig.  115. — Le  Gascon  binding 


278  THE   PRINTED   BOOK, 

showing  the  fibres  of  the  leaves,  he  made  a  new  kind  of 
ornament,  consisting  of  minute  gold  dots  elaborated  into 
lines  and  curves  of  singular  brilliancy  and  elegance. 
Of  this  style,  called  pGiiitillc,  we  give  a  specimen  from 
the  collection  of  M.  Dutuit.  The  fashion  had  arrived 
all  at  once  ;  lace,  banished  from  clothing  by  severe 
edicts,  found  a  refuge  on  the  covering  of  books. 

The  times  were  hard  then  for  binders  ;  they  were 
constrained  to  live  in  the  university  and  to  employ 
only  its  workmen.  A  binder  was  never  his  own  gilder; 
he  employed  the  gaufreurs  of  shoe-leather,  more  expert 
and  bolder,  to  gild  his  leather.  Among  these  artisans 
was  one  named  Pigorreau,  whom  the  edict  found  living 
in  the  midst  of  publishers  and  working  for  them ;  he 
was  compelled  to  choose  either  to  remain  bootmaker 
or  become  bookseller ;  he  chose  the  latter,  against  the 
syndics  of  the  trade,  against  every  one,  and  he  made 
enemies  for  himself.  He  revenged  himself  by  turning 
the  masters  into  ridicule  in  a  placard. 

Le  Gascon  was  probably  the  assumed  name  of  an 
artist  in  this  style.  The  Guirlande  de  Julie,  worked 
by  him  for  Mademoiselle  de  Rambouillet,  gave  him 
great  honour  in  the  special  circle  of  this  little  literary 
court.  It  was  the  fashion  then  for  poor  authors 
to  put  a  fine  covering  on  their  works  and  to  offer 
them  to  the  great  for  their  own  profit.  Tallement  des 
Reaux  notably  signalises  the  poet  Laserre,  who  dis- 
played his  luxury  in  irreproachable  bindings.  And 
then  the  farmers  of  the  revenue,  successors  of  Grolier 
in  financial  trusts,  formed  libraries  for  pure  fashion, 
never  opening  the  volumes  covered  for  them  in  sump- 
tuous attire.     If  we  may  believe  Sauval,  author  of  the 


LE   GASCON   BINDINGS. 


279 


Fig.  116. —  Le  Gascon  binding  for  Cardinal  Mazarin. 

Antiquitcs  dc  Paris,  they  went  further,  and  on  covers 
without  books  inscribed  imaginary  titles  and  fantastic 


280  •  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

squibs  to  mislead  their  visitors.  The  bookcase  being 
carefully  closed,  it  was  difficult  to  discover  the  impo- 
sition. Sauval  writes,  "  In  place  of  books,  they  are 
content  with  covers  of  levant  morocco,  on  the  backs  ot 
which,  in  gold  letters,  are  inscribed  the  names  of  the 
most  celebrated  authors.  A  binder  of  the  university 
assured  me  that  not  long  since  he  and  his  confreres 
had  made  them  for  a  single  financier  to  the  amount 
of  10,000  crowns  !  " 

The  works  of  Le  Gascon  will  be  found  more  among 
great  personages  than  with  the  so-called  collectors, 
which  gives  value  to  their  grace  and  charm.  The 
King's  brother  Gaston  possessed  them,  then  Mazarin, 
an  example  from  whose  library  is  here  reproduced. 
On  this  binding  Le  Gascon  worked  gilt  compartments 
and  elaborate  arabesques;  in  the  middle  of  the  sides  are 
the  arms  of  the  Cardinal  and  his  pretentious  device  : 
"  Arma  Julii  ornant  Franciam  !  " — "The  arms  of  Jules 
the  ornament  of  France  !  "  In  spite  of  the  profusion  of 
subjects,  nothing  could  better  please  the  eye  or  indicate 
a  man  of  taste. 

But  if  Le  Gascon  be  a  legendary  personage,  he  had 
an  imitator  or  rival,  very  near  to  him,  named  Flori- 
mond  Badier,  whose  works  had  at  least  the  advantage 
of  being  signed.  At  the  bottom  of  the  inside  cover  of 
an  inlaid  morocco  binding  in  the  National  Library  at 
Paris  is  the  inscription  "  Florimond  Badier  fee,  inv." 
The  analogy  between  this  work  and  those  known  as 
Le  Gascon's  is  palpable  ;  inside  and  outside,  the  cover 
is  stippled  with  small  tools  {an  petit  fer)  in  the  same 
manner.  Florimond  Badier  was  not  appointed  book- 
seller until    1645,   and   so    could    not    have  composed 


BINDINGS   FOR   LOUIS   XIV.  28 1 

earlier  bindings  attributed  to  Le  Gascon,  but  this 
resemblance  of  style  evidences  the  existence  of  a 
Parisian  school,  the  adepts  of  which  copied  one  another, 
as  they  do  nowadays. 

The  work  was  soon  simplified ;  pallets  and  wheel- 
shaped  tools  were  invented  to  produce  that  which  was 
improperly  called  dentcUe ;  this  mechanical  work  was 
done  by  a  wheel-shaped  tool,  previously  heated,  on  gold 
in  sized  leaves,  on  which  it  impressed  its  projections. 

With  Louis  XIV.  the  passion  for  gilding  increased. 
Charming  festoons  were  designed,  but  they  were  soon 
abused,  and  inundated  the  libraries.  On  the  sides 
were  seen  rising  suns,  arms,  and  golden  garlands. 
Cramoisy  directed  the  royal  bindings,  the  King  having 
devoted  large  sums  to  the  purchase  of  Levant  leathers. 
In  1666  the  Director  of  Works  ordered  red  moroccos  ; 
in  1667  he  received  twenty-two  dozen  skins,  amounting, 
with  the  expenses  of  transport,  to  i,020  livres  tournois. 
Successive  supplies  were  made,  and  were  used  for  the 
royal  library,  sixty-nine  dozen  in  1667,  forty-six  dozen 
in  1668,  and  three  hundred  and  thirty-three  dozen  in 
1670,  costing  the  King  more  than  12,000  livres.  On 
these  admirably  dressed  skins,  which,  in  spite  of  inces- 
sant use,  still  remain  now  as  in  their  first  days,  the 
King  caused  to  be  applied,  according  to  the  size, 
tools  of  borders,  having  in  the  middle  the  arms  of 
France,  with  the  collar  of  St.  Esprit. 

Among  the  binders  mentioned  in  the  very  useful  work 
of  M.  J.  J.  Guiffrey  on  the  expenditure  of  Louis  XIV., 
we  find  Gilles  Dubois,  who  died  before  1670;  Levas- 
seur,  binder  of  Huet,  Bishop  of  Avranches ;  La  Tour, 
Merins   or   Merius,   who   died   before   1676  ;    and   also 


282  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

Ruette,  the  reputed  inventor  of  marbled  paper  for  fly- 
leaves of  books :  to  him  the  bindings  of  the  Chancellor 
de  Seguier,  with  their  ornament  of  the  golden  fleece,  and 
of  Madame  de  Seguier,  are  attributed.  It  was  probably 
these  men  who  decorated  the  books  of  the  brothers 
Dupuy,  Fouquet,  and  Colbert,  marvellous  works  of 
solidity,  if  not  always  of  elegance,  which  have  resisted 
all  assaults.  Unhappily,  in  many  instances  the  me- 
chanical dentelle  overburdened  the  work,  and  gave  it  a 
commonplace  regularity.  In  the  Conde,  Colbert,  and 
perhaps  even  Madame  de  Longueville's  collections, 
there  are  many  specimens  of  this  kind  with  two  or 
three  filleted  borders. 

We  have  come  to  an  epoch  when  the  difficulties 
resulting  from  confusion  between  the  booksellers'  and 
binders'  trades  began  to  be  understood.  The  revo- 
cation of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  had  implicitly  prepared 
a  crowd  of  measures  and  rules  in  all  branches  of 
national  industry.  It  was  a  good  occasion  to  prevent 
the  artisans  of  binding  unduly  parading  themselves  as 
booksellers  and  selling  merchandise  of  which  they 
understood  nothing;  Louis  XIV.  interfered,  and  sepa- 
rated the  two  communities.  The  binders  then  became 
the  relkurs-doreurs  of  books ;  they  had  their  own 
organisation,  but  remained  subject  to  the  university ; 
the  heads  of  the  fraternity  were  called  the  "  guards." 
The  principal  arrangements  of  the  regulation  of  1749 
were  :  the  members  of  the  corporation  had  the  sole 
right  to  bind  books,  from  the  elegant  volume  to  registers 
of  blank  paper.  Five  years  of  apprenticeship  and  three 
of  companionship  were  necessary  to  obtain  the  brevet 
of   freedom    and    to  hold  a    shop.     Moreover,   it    was 


Fig    117. — Mosaic  binding  of  the  eighteenth  century  for  the  Spaccio  de 
la  Bestia  Trioiifante. 


284  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

indispensable  to  read  and  write.  One  regulation  or- 
dained that  the  workman  should  be  "  able  to  bind  and 
ornament  ordinar}^  books  or  others,  to  render  them 
perfect  and  entire,  to  sew  the  sheets  at  most  two  to- 
gether with  thread  and  real  bands,  with  joints  of 
parchment,  and  not  paper,  and  in  case  of  infraction 
the  said  books  were  to  be  remade  at  the  expense  of 
the  offender,  who  was  besides  condemned  to  a  penalty 
of  thirty  livres  for  each  volume."  Their  establishment 
was  confined  to  the  quarter  from  the  Rue  St.  Andre  des 
Arts  to  the  Place  Maubert ;  the}^  regulated  the  sale  of 
calfskin  and  of  tools  ;  in  a  word,  they  were  surrounded 
by  precautions  by  which  the  production  remained 
always  under  the  supervision  of  the  masters  and  com- 
pletely satisfied  the  client.  This  calculating  policy 
was,  in  fact,  a  close  imitation  of  the  royal  ordinance  of 
1686. 

The  mosaic  bindings  used  from  the  end  of  the  reign 
of  Louis  XIV.  were  an  application  of  pared  leathers 
of  colours  different  from  the  background,  pasted  on  to 
the  side.  The  binders  of  the  regency  composed  a 
great  number,  attributed  now  to  Pasdeloup,  as  all  the 
crayons  of  the  sixteenth  century  are  called  Clouets, 
and  all  the  panels  on  wood  Holbeins.  It  is  not  that 
there  was  great  originality  in  these  works,  or  a  parti- 
cular art ;  more  often  the  workman  did  no  more  than 
transcribe  Le  Gascon  or  Eve  or  the  older  binders,  and 
accommodated  the  processes  of  these  artists  to  the 
fashion  of  his  time.  In  this  style  we  may  cite  the 
Spaccio  dc  la  Bestia  Trio)ifantc,  printed  at  Paris  1584, 
for  which  the  binder  designed  a  cover  of  doubtful  taste 
and,  above  all,  an  undeniable  want  of  proportion.     The 


Fig.  1 18.— Mosaic  binding  of  the  eighteenth  century,  with  the  arms  of 
the  Regent.     M.  Morgand's  collection. 


286  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

tendency  was  then  to  flowers  occupying  three-fourths 
of  the  page,  to  compartments  too  large,  to  open  pome- 
granates, like  the  Spaccio  here  reproduced.  If  Pasde- 
loup  had  discovered  these  mediocre  combinations,  he 
could  not  be  proclaimed  the  regenerator  of  a  fallen  art. 
The  bastard  style  of  these  works  may  be  compared  to 
their  mosaics,  constructed  of  pieces ;  it  is  a  little  of 
everything,  and  together  it  is  nothing.  However,  in 
the  midst  of  the  quantity  of  mediocre  things,  some 
pleasing  decoration  is  from  time  to  time  met  with  ; 
the  design  of  a  volume  with  the  arms  of  the  Regent 
and  his  wife,  Mademoiselle  de  Blois,  wants  neither 
elegance  nor  taste  ;  without  being  perfection,  it  has 
better  proportion  and  balance. 

We  should,  however,  hesitate  to  giv^e  names  to  all  these 
works.  Besides  Pasdeloup,  there  were  the  Deromes, 
abandoning  a  little  the  mosaics,  devising  flowers  and 
dentelles  in  combination,  and  no  longer  the  simple 
products  of  the  fillet.  They  formed  a  dynasty ;  and  if 
the  Pasdeloups  were  at  least  twelve,  there  were  four- 
teen Deromes  all  booksellers  and  binders  from  the 
reign  of  Louis  XIV.  The  most  celebrated  was  James 
Anthony,  who  died  in  1 761. 

Peter  Paul  Dubuisson  was  not  only  a  binder  ;  he 
was  a  designer.  He  invented  heraldic  ornaments,  and 
composed  models  of  gilding  tools,  in  which  his  contem- 
poraries emulated  him.  He  was  intimate  with  the 
delicate  vignettist  Eisen,  and  the  counsels  of  an  artist 
of  this  value  could  not  but  be  useful  to  him.  It  is  an 
extraordinary  thing  that  in  this  world  of  celebrated 
printers,  amateur  financiers,  and  notable  painters  and 
engravers,  not  a  single  man  can  be  met  to  give  a  real 


DEROME   AND    HIS   SUCCESSORS.  28/ 

impulse  to  the  art  of  which  we  speak,  and  to  prevent 
the  dull  continuance  of  experiments  on  the  whole  so 
poor.  Doubtless  the  dentelles  of  Derome  had  a  certain 
air  of  gaiety,  to  which  the  books  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury accommodated  themselves  perfectly  ;  the  tools  of 
Dubuisson  produce  most  pleasing  designs  ;  but  the  old, 
the  great  binders,   had  altogether  disappeared. 

Besides,  Derome  massacred  without  pity  the  rarest 
works.  He  loved  edges  very  regularly  cut,  and  he  did 
not  fail  to  hew  down  margins  opposed  to  his  taste. 
He  sawed  books  as  well ;  that  is  to  say,  in  place  of 
sewing  the  sheets  on  to  projecting  bands,  he  made  a 
groove  in  the  back,  in  which  the  cord  was  embedded. 
The  books  have  no  resistance. 

To  these  celebrated  names  of  French  binders  of  the 
eighteenth  centur}^  we  may  add  Le  Monnier,  who 
worked  for  the  Orleans  princes  ;  Tessier,  his  successor  ; 
Laferte,  who  decorated  the  small  volumes  of  the  Due  de 
la  Valliere  as  Chamot  covered  the  large  ones  ;  in  1766 
Chamot  was  royal  binder.  There  was  also  Pierre 
Engerrand,  then  Biziaux,  an  original,  who  worked  for 
Madame  de  Pompadour  and  Beaumarchais.  Boyet,  or 
Boyer,  worked  (1670 — 80)  in  the  style  of  Le  Gascon, 
with  the  same  minute  tooling,  but  simpler  in  character. 
Duseuil  put  very  elaborate  and  delicate  tooling  on  his 
covers  from  about  17 10  to  1720. 

The  Revolution  effaced  many  of  the  fine  works 
which  displayed  the  symbols  "  of  a  royalty  justly 
detested,"  and  Mercier  wrote  certain  wicked  little 
poems  against  binding.  Lesne  was  the  poet  of  book- 
binding, and  he  invented  the  process  of  plain  calf 
without  boards.     Certainly  from  Grolier  to  Lesne  there 


288  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

were  numerous  changes,  so  numerous  that,  in  spite  of 
the  nude  calf,  it  may  be  said  that  the  art  was  nearly 
dead.  In  our  days  it  has  a  little  recovered.  Amateurs 
have  found  new  names,  and  often  artists,  to  patronise  : 
Trautz-Bauzonnet,  Cape,  Duru,  Lortic,  Marius  Michel, 
in  France ;  Bedford,  Riviere,  Zaehnsdorf,  Pratt,  in 
England ;  Matthews,  Bradstreet,  Smith,  in  the  United 
States ;  and  many  others.  Unhappily,  fortune  does 
not  permit  every  one  to  furnish  his  library  luxuriously  ; 
the  true  connoisseur  searches  rather  for  Groliers,  Eves, 
and  Le  Gascons,  than  concerns  himself  about  modern 
workmanship.  Whatever  may  be  its  value,  it  is  only 
fit  to  clothe  the  works  of  the  time.  A  book  published 
by  Lemerre  and  bound  by  Petit  is  in  true  character,  but 
a  fifteenth  or  sixteenth  century  book  passed  under  the 
hands  of  Trautz-Bauzonnet  himself  will  be  very  much 
like  an  ancient  enamel  in  a  modern  frame  newly  gilt. 

Bookbinding  in  England  has,  with  very  few  ex- 
ceptions, never  attained  the  artistic  excellence  reached 
in  France.  From  the  earliest  times  to  the  present  day 
servile  imitations  of  foreign  work  only  are  seen.  The 
one  purely  original  English  binder  is  Roger  Payne, 
who  from  about  1770  worked  for  thirty  or  forty  years 
in  London,  performing  with  his  own  hands  every  stage 
of  the  work,  even  to  cutting  his  own  tools.  The  result 
was  good,  solid  work,  with  perfectly  original  and  often 
very  beautiful  decoration,  appropriate  to  the  character 
of  the  work  itself.  His  favourite  style  was  drooping 
lines  of  leaf  ornaments  in  the  borders  and  geometrical 
patterns  in  small  tools.  After  him  came  Charles  Lewis, 
who  was  an  artist  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  and, 
coming  down  to  our  own  time,   Francis  Bedford,  who, 


BINDING   FOR   THE   TRADE.  289 

never  pretending  to  originality,  copied  tlie  best  designs 
of  the  old  French  and  Italian  binders.  His  full  calf 
books,  with  handsomely  tooled  backs,  are  models  of 
solidity  and  taste ;  and  his  decorations  on  the  sides  of 
morocco-bound  books  are  always  in  good  taste,  and 
often  of  great  elegance.  The  binders  of  the  present 
day,  perhaps  for  lack  of  patronage,  seem  to  have 
abandoned  originality ;  and  although  much  excellent 
work  is  done,  it  is  no  more  than  a  copy  of  the  Eves, 
Le  Gascon,  Derome,  and  the  older  artists. 

Parallel  with  the  luxurious  bindings  with  which  we 
have  been  exclusively  occupied,  there  has  always  been 
the  commercial  work,  prepared  in  advance.  Liturgical 
works,  above  all,  are  sold  in  this  form.  Books  in 
the  Grolier  style  or  other  grand  personages  were 
worked  from  a  pattern  engraved  in  relief,  leaving 
nothing  to  the  caprice  of  the  artist,  by  being  applied 
to  the  side  by  a  press.  This  process  is  termed  block- 
ing. Germany  made  use  of  this  process  principally ; 
also  Vostre,  Verard,  and  Tory  employed  the  same 
means.  Even  the  interlacings  and  the  capricious 
arabesques  of  Grolier  were  imitated  by  means  of  a 
fixed  plate,  parts  of  which  were  finished  by  hand 
to  make  it  appear  a  complete  work  of  imagination 
and  handicraft. 


10 


CHAPTER    IX. 


LIBRARIES. 

RT,  science,  and  literature  took 
refuge  in  convents  before  the  in- 
vention of  Printing,  and  libraries 
did  not  count  many  books.  Ac- 
cording to  daily  wants,  the  monas- 
tery scribes  copied  the  treatises  lent 
by  neighbouring  houses,  and  the  collection  was  thus 
painfully  made  during  many  centuries.  Two  or  three 
hundred  works  constituted  ordinar}'  collections ;  the 
powerful  abbeys  found  in  their  staff  the  means  of 
enriching  their  libraries,  as  we  have  said,  but  the}^ 
were  the  privileged  ones. 

Excepting  kings  and  some  princes,  few  people  pos- 
sessed a  library.  The  great  expense  of  transcription, 
the  want  of  facility  for  procuring  originals,  and  the 
enormous  price  of  manuscripts  left  no  hope  to  biblio- 
philes of  moderate  fortune.  Typography,  on  the  con- 
trary, having  multiplied  books  and  put  at  relatively 
modest  prices  reproductions  formerly  inaccessible, 
private  collections  commenced.  We  have  had  occasion 
to  speak  before  of  Grolier  and  Maioli ;  they  were  the 
most  illustrious,   but  not  the  only  ones. 

At  first  a  public  library  was  an  unknown  thing. 
The  richest  and  the  most  easily  got  together,  that  of 


FRENCH    ROYAL   LIliRARIES.  29 1 

the  King  of  France,  was  private.  Since  John  the  Good 
in  France  the  acquisitions  were  numerous,  and  Guten- 
berg's invention  contributed  to  augment  the  stock  of 
volumes  everywhere.  Charles  VIII.  and  Louis  XII. 
found  or  took  in  their  expeditions  in  Italy,  and  were 
able  to  add  to  the  original  nucleus,  many  rare  editions, 
especially  from  the  Sforzas  at  Pavia,  who  had  marvels 
without  number.  Brought  together  at  Blois,  under 
the  care  of  John  de  Labarre,  the  royal  library  did  not 
yet  occupy  a  very  large  space,  in  .spite  of  its  increase. 
Under  Charles  V.  the  number  of  books  was  about  a 
thousand;  about  1500  or  15 10  they  were  nearly 
doubled,  and  the  printed  books  did  not  number  more 
than  two  hundred. 

So  restricted,  the  royal  library  travelled  with  the 
other  treasures  of  the  Crown  ;  Francis  I.  transported 
it  from  Blois  to  Fontainebleau,  and  even  parts  of  it  to 
the  Italian  wars,  as  related  above.  In  its  new  quarters 
the  royal  collection,  in  spite  of  the  successive  accessions 
of  the  books  of  John  d'Angouleme,  grandfather  of  the 
King,  and  of  those  of  the  dukes  of  Orleans,  counted 
but  1,781  manuscripts  and  a  hundred  and  nine  printed 
books  on  the  shelves.  The  King,  ambitious  in  litera- 
ture no  less  than  in  arts,  nominated  an  illustrious 
savant,  Guillaume  Bude,  to  the  office  of  master  of  his 
library ;  and  this  qualification  was  maintained  by  his 
successors  until  the  fall  of  the  royal  power. 

With  Bude  commenced  the  system  of  continuous 
acquisitions.  The  treasury  was  liberally  opened  to 
vendors  of  rarities.  At  this  time  the  books,  placed 
upon  their  sides,  one  upon  another,  gave  no  idea  of 
a    modern   library,   with   its   volumes   ranged  on    end, 


292  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

having  their  titles  between  the  bands  of  the  back.  In 
spealving  of  Grolier,  we  remarked  that  the  sides  of  a 
binding  alone  had  importance  on  account  of  their  place 
on  the  shelves ;  it  was  the  same  with  Francis  I. 

Under  Henri  II.  the  Fontainebleau  collection  was 
somewhat  pillaged  for  Diana  of  Poitiers,  but,  as  a  cor- 
rective for  this  dilapidation,  the  King  adopted  a  mea- 
sure, since  preserved,  which  substituted  for  acquisitions 
a  regular  and  uninterrupted  supply  ;  this  was  the  con- 
tribution by  publishers  to  the  library  of  one  bound 
copy  on  vellum  of  all  the  works  printed  under  privilege. 
The  ordinance  was  made  in  1556;  the  successors  of 
Henri  II.  had  only  this  means  of  increasing  the 
number  of  their  volumes,  with  the  exception  that 
Charles  IX.  expended  a  large  sum  in  the  purchase  of 
Grolier's  collection  of  medals. 

Such  was  the  working  of  the  royal  library  for  about 
a  half-century,  but  the  idea  of  making  it  public  had  not 
come.  Diffused  as  was  then  the  passion  for  books,  it 
had  not  yet  been  democratised  to  the  point  of  being 
understood  by  the  people.  Amateurs  and  lovers  of 
reading  formed  special  collections  in  their  houses,  at 
times  rivalUng  that  of  the  King.  Then  the  fashion  was 
no  more  to  lay  the  books  on  their  sides,  but  the}^  were 
now  ranged  to  allow  room  for  new  acquisitions. 
Henri  IV.,  who  had  not  his  great-uncle's  predilection 
for  Fontainebleau,  commanded  the  removal  to  Paris  of 
the  books  buried  in  the  castle.  He  added  to  them 
those  of  Catherine  de  Medicis  coming  from  Marshal 
Strozzi  ;  and  as  the  college  of  Clermont  had  become 
vacant  by  the  dispersion  of  the  Jesuits,  he  lodged  the 
library  in  1599  in  one  of  the  rooms  of  that  establish- 


THE   FRENCH   ROYAL   LIBRARY.  293 

ment,  under  the  care  of  James  Augustus  de  Thou, 
master  of  the  hbrary. 

We  now  see  the  royal  collection  brought  to  Paris, 
which  it  has  never  quitted ;  but  before  its  definitive 
installation,  before  it  was  made  public,  it  passed  through 
a  century,  during  which  additions  were  made,  pur- 
chases increased,  and  the  number  of  manuscripts  and 
printed  books  augmented  in  enormous  proportions. 
Henri  IV.  desired  to  place  it  near  the  court,  to  avoid 
pillage  and  to  have  the  chief  librarian  near  to  him. 
The  return  of  the  Jesuits  in  1604  upset  the  first 
establishment  a  little ;  the  college  of  Clermont  was 
evacuated  ;  the  books  were  transported  to  the  Cordeliers 
and  distributed  in  rooms  on  the  ground  and  first  floors, 
whence  the  names  of  upper  and  lower  libraries.  There 
was  a  mass  of  volumes  very  little  used,  for  the  public 
did  not  enjoy  them,  and  the  King  held  them  as  his 
own  ;  but  the  time  was  near  when  the  collection  was 
to  take  a  very  serious  step  under  the  influence  of  the 
brothers  Dupuy  in  1 645,  and  afterwards  of  Jerome 
Bignon.  Always  shut  up  in  the  incommodious 
chambers  of  the  Cordeliers,  the  library  contained 
5,259  volumes,  manuscript  and  printed,  perhaps  less 
than  some  private  libraries  ;  after  the  Dupuys  it  had 
at  least  10,329  printed  books. 

Mazarin  was  the  first  to  comprehend  the  natural  use 
of  collections  of  books  :  publicity.  His  private  library, 
placed  before  1651  in  his  magnificent  house  in  the 
Rue  Richelieu,  where  later  was  definitively  lodged 
the  royal  library,  was  opened  to  readers  every 
Tuesday,  from  eight  to  eleven  and  two  to  five.  Dis- 
persed in  165 1,  at  the  fall  of  the  Cardinal,  it  was  later 


294  THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 

reconstituted,  and  in  less  than  ten  years  afterwards  the 
former  minister  was  able  to  open  it  in  its  new  quarters, 
the  College  of  the  Four  Nations,  where  it  is  still. 

While  the  Mazarin  library  was  administering  libe- 
rally to  the  wants  of  the  public,  that  of  the  King  remained 
closely  shut  up  in  the  rooms  of  the  Cordeliers.  Colbert, 
influenced  by  this  state  of  things,  offered  two  houses 
in  the  Rue  Vivienne  to  the  King,  where  the  books  could 
find  a  more  convenient  lodging,  and  allow  room  for 
increase.  The  removal  was  made  in  1666.  The  royal 
collection  for  fifty-five  years  was  lodged  only  a  few 
steps  from  its  final  resting-place,  the  Hotel  de  Nevers. 
So  was  called  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century 
the  splendid  mansion  of  Mazarin,  situated  near  the 
Porte  de  Richelieu,  in  the  street  of  the  same  name, 
whence  his  books  had  been  previously  torn  and  sold 
to  all  the  dealers.  Divided  into  two  parts  at  the  death 
of  the  Cardinal  in  1661,  the  palace  fell,  one  part  to  the 
Due  de  Mazarin,  the  other  to  the  Due  de  Nevers,  his 
nephews.  At  first  the  King  dreamed,  under  the  advice 
of  Louvais,  of  acquiring  the  land  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  Rue  Vivienne  and  of  elevating  a  monument 
for  his  library,  for  the  thought  of  putting  the  Hotel  de 
Nevers  to  this  use  had  not  then  occurred  to  him  ;  but 
the  Due  de  Mazarin  having  alienated  his  part  of  the 
palace  in  favour  of  the  Company  of  the  Indies,  Abbe 
Bignon,  then  royal  librarian,  perceived  the  part  he 
could  play  from  that  fact. 

Thanks  to  the  administration  of  Colbert  and  the 
liberalities  of  the  King,  the  collection  had  been  aug- 
mented threefold.  At  the  time  of  the  removal  to  the 
Rue  Vivienne,  Nicolas  Clement  worked  at  the  classi- 


THE   FRENCH   ROYAL   LIBRARY.  295 

fying  and  cataloguing  of  35,000  volumes.  He  dis- 
tributed them  into  methodical  classes,  and  devoted  nine 
years — 1675  to  1684 — to  his  work.  But  this  first  un- 
ravelling was  soon  insufficient.  Less  than  four  years 
after,  he  commenced  a  new  inventory  in  twenty-one 
volumes,  which  occupied  thirty  years,  having  been 
finished  in  the  course  of  March,  17 14.  This  time  the 
numbers  amounted  to  43,000  printed  volumes ;  his 
twenty-three  principal  divisions,  containing  all  the 
letters  of  the  alphabet,  are  very  nearly  preserved  up  to 
our  day.  In  1697  the  question  of  publishing  this  enor- 
mous work  was  agitated,  and  on  this  point  Clement  had 
a  curious  correspondence  with  a  learned  Dane  named 
Frederick  Bostgaard  ;  he  also,  in  a  celebrated  pamphlet, 
Idee  d'tine  NouvcUe  Maniere  de  dresser  le  Catalogue  d'une 
Bibliothcquc,  indicated  practical  observations ;  he  re- 
solved this  arduous  question  for  important  collections  by 
difference  of  sizes  ;  but  his  project  was  not  executed, 
although  favoured  from  the  first  by  Abbe  Bignon. 

As  the  collection  was  not  available  for  workers,  the 
work  of  Clement  had  only  a  relative  importance.  A 
councillor  of  the  Prince  of  Waldeck,  a  German  of  the 
name  of  Nemeitz,  who  travelled  in  France  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  eighteenth  century,  having  seen  it  in  the 
houses  of  the  Rue  Vivienne,  says  that  the  library 
occupied  then  twenty-six  rooms  and  contained  75,000 
volumes  in  all ;  it  was  shown  voluntarily  to  strangers, 
but  not  to  the  public.  Nemeitz  gives  some  other 
curious  particulars  as  to  the  libraries  of  Paris  {Sejour 
a  Paris:  Leyde,  1727,  8vo). 

The  bank  of  Law,  that  had  been  lodged  for  some 
time  in  the  Hotel  de  Nevers,  alienated  by  the  heirs  of 


296  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

Mazarin,  soon  disappeared  with  the  ruin  of  his  system. 
As  we  have  said  above,  Bignon  appreciated  the 
importance  of  the  neglected  palace  for  commodiously 
lodging  the  royal  collections.  This  was  in  1721.  The 
collection  was  about  to  be  subdivided  into  four  sections, 
or,  as  they  were  then  called  in  the  administrative  style, 
four  distinct  departments  :  manuscripts,  printed  books, 
titles,  and  engraved  plates.  The  master  of  the  library 
pressed  the  Regent  to  profit  by  the  occasion,  to  which 
he  agreed.  In  the  month  of  September  the  removal 
commenced,  and  from  the  Rue  Vivienne,  the  royal 
library,  the  first  in  the  world  and  the  most  valuable, 
as  Naude  says,  entered  the  former  palace  of  the  Cardinal, 
which  it  was  never  to  quit  again. 

We  approach  the  epoch  when  this  great  scientific  esta- 
blishment was  to  quit  its  private  character  and  to  open 
its  doors  to  the  learned  of  all  countries.  In  1735  it  was 
decided  to  print  the  catalogue  of  some  divisions  only  : 
theology,  canonical  law,  public  law,  and  belles  lettres. 
This  resolution  coincided  precisely  with  the  opening  of 
the  doors  which  took  place  in  1737,  in  which  year 
appeared  the  first  volume  of  the  catalogue  comprising 
the  sacred  Scriptures.  At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  royal  library  was  finally  established ;  the 
printed  books  then  comprised  about  200,000  volumes, 
and  access  was  had  by  a  staircase  leading  to  six 
grand  saloons,  which  were  surrounded  by  galleries. 
From  this  moment  the  rooms  became  too  small.  At 
the  Revolution  the  number  of  books  had  increased 
to  300,000,  and  projects  of  enlargement  commenced,  to 
be  continued  to  our  time  ;  but,  in  spite  of  these  pro- 
posals, the  surface  occupied  by  the  library  has  remained 


FRENCH    PUBLIC   LIBRARIES.  297 

the  same  since  the  time  of  Louis  XV.  Enlargements 
and  alterations  have  been  made  year  after  year  on  the 
same  ground  without  much  new  construction.  But 
how  the  treasures  have  been  augmented  to  this  time  ! 
If  the  printed  books  at  the  Revolution  represented 
a  little  more  than  300,000  volumes,  to-day  they  exceed 
two  millions  ;  the  prints  number  two  and  a  half 
millions  ;  the  medals,  ioo,ooo;  the  manuscripts,  some- 
thing over  90,000. 

If  we  have  thus  brought  the  summary  history  of  the 
National  Library  of  Paris  to  our  days,  it  was  to  avoid 
mixing  it  with  other  matters.  We  have  entered  into 
such  detail  regarding  it  as  is  fitting  for  the  most 
important  library  in  the  world.  We  now  return  to  the 
seventeenth  century. 

At  the  time  when  Henri  IV.  carried  from  Fontaine- 
bleau  to  Paris  the  nucleus  of  volumes  that  was  to  have 
so  brilliant  a  destiny,  the  passion  for  books  had 
singularly  spread  itself  in  France.  We  have  already 
spoken  of  Mazarin  ;  after  him  Cardinal  Richelieu 
designed  to  open  his  private  collection  to  the  public, 
and  in  his  will  he  manifested  his  clearly  held  intention. 
He  went  further  in  his  last  wishes  :  he  prescribed  the 
daily  sweeping  and  dusting  of  the  precious  collection, 
and  its  augmentation  by  a  thousand  livres  tournois  each 
year.  The  great  personages  of  the  time  were  not 
behind  ;  and  Sauval  says  that  in  the  seventeenth  century 
there  were  1,000  or  1,200  private  libraries  in  Paris, 
numbering  1,700,000  volumes. 

In  the  provinces  there  were  few  public  libraries.  The 
communities  and  learned  Societies,  the  Jesuits  and 
other  religious  houses,  and  the  universities  had  collec- 


298  THE   PRINTED   BOOK. 

tions.  At  Orleans  a  library  was  opened  for  Germans, 
and  the  students  of  that  country  were  able  to  work  at 
their  ease  under  the  supervision  of  two  librarians. 

At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  number  of 
libraries  had  increased  in  large  proportions ;  the 
amateurs  had  made  their  influence  felt.  The  Book  was 
not  sought  only  for  what  it  contained,  but  also  for 
its  exterior  clothing.  Only  the  great  libraries  open  to 
everybody  remained  eclectic,  and  provided  a  little  of 
everything.  Besides  the  royal  library,  there  were  in 
Paris  a  great  number  of  other  collections,  which  the 
revolutionary  storm  upset  and  often  destroyed.  That 
of  St.  Germain  des  Pres  was  burnt  in  1794.  That  of 
St.  Genevieve,  founded  in  1625,  had  benefited  by 
celebrated  donations,  among  others  those  of  the 
cardinals  De  Berulle  and  De  la  Rochefoucauld  ;  the 
Arsenal,  created  by  the  Marquis  de  Paulmy,  was 
successively  enriched  by  important  acquisitions,  among 
which  was  the  collection  of  the  Due  de  la  Valliere. 
These  collections  still  exist,  and  are  open  to  the 
public,  as  also  are  the  National  Library,  the  Mazarine, 
the  Sorbonne,  the  Museum,  the  School  of  Fine  Arts, 
the  City  of  Paris,  the  Institute,  the  Louvre,  and  the 
several  scientific  faculties. 

The  provinces  have  not  been  behind  in  the  movement. 
Many  of  the  great  cities  contain  a  considerable  number 
of  books  easily  accessible,  among  them  the  libraries  of 
Bordeaux  and  Rouen,  amounting  to  1 50,000  volumes ; 
Troyes  and  Besancon,  100,000,  etc.  Few  important 
centres  have  less  than  20,000.  These  collections  have 
been  generally  composed  of  those  of  the  religious 
establishments,  closed  by  the  Revolution. 


PUBLIC    LIBRARIES    IN    GER]NL\NY.  299 

In  our  time  public  libraries  are  augmented  by  the 
legal  deposit,  gifts  of  the  State,  legacies  of  private 
persons,  and  purchases.  The  legal  deposit  in  France 
relates  almost  exclusively  to  the  National  Librar}',  and 
proceeds  from  the  measures  taken  by  Henri  II.  in  1556. 
Each  French  printer  has  now  to  deposit  a  certain 
number  of  copies  of  the  works  that  he  issues,  and  these 
volumes  go  to  swell  the  number  of  books  in  the  Rue 
de  Richelieu.  At  the  rate  of  30,000  a  year,  the  time 
is  easily  anticipated  and  very  near  when  the  space  will 
be  found  insufficient.  Some  measures  will  have  to  be 
taken. 

Germany,  the  cradle  of  printing,  was  not  favoured  in 
the  beginning.  It  had,  however,  in  the  seventeenth 
centur}',  in  Wolfenbiitte!,  a  little  town  in  the  duchy  of 
Brunswick,  a  curious  collection  of  books,  in  a  detached 
building,  of  which  the  engraver  Merian  has  preserved 
for  us  the  physiognomy  ;  it  contained  nearly  200,000 
volumes,  an  enormous  number  for  the  time.  The  rather 
low  rooms  were  shelved  all  round  ;  in  the  middle  were 
cases  of  the  height  of  a  man,  also  filled  with  books  ;  the 
readers  helped  themselves,  and  were  seated  for  working. 
The  exterior  of  the  building,  without  being  sumptuous, 
was  isolated  and  detached.  In  our  time  this  collection 
includes  the  Bible,  glass,  and  inkstand  of  Luther  and  his 
portrait  by  Lucas  Cranach. 

Another  curious  library,  dating  from  the  beginning 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  is  that  of  the  city  of 
Leyden.  An  engraving  by  Woudan  shows  its  state  in 
1 6 10,  with  its  classifications  and  divisions.  The  books 
were  ranged  in  cases  provided  with  breast-high  desks. 
The   books   were  placed  with  the  edges  in  front,  and 


300  THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 

not  as  now,  and  were  so  attached  that  they  could  only 
be  consulted  in  their  place.  Each  body  of  shelving 
contained  a  series  of  authors :  theology,  philosophy, 
mathematics,  history,  medicine,  law,  and  literature. 
The  room,  of  square  shape,  was  lighted  by  windows 
right  and  left.  Between  the  bays  were  portraits,  views 
of  cities,  and  maps.  On  the  right,  in  a  shrine,  was 
enclosed  the  legacy  of  Joseph  Scaliger.  Communication 
was  less  liberal  than  at  Wolfenbiittel ;  the  readers  were 
obliged  to  take  the  books  from  the  shelves  themselves 
and  read  them  standing  before  the  desks. 

In  England,  the  celebrated  Oxford  Library  should  be 
mentioned,  augmented  and  restored  in  1597  by  Sir 
Thomas  Bodley,  ambassador  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  The 
generous  overtures  of  this  rich  gentleman  met  with 
unanimous  approbation.  He  offered  to  the  library 
of  the  university  the  volumes  collected  by  him  during 
his  travels  on  the  Continent,  whose  value  exceeded 
;f  10,000.  The  first  stone  of  a  new  building  was  laid 
in  16 10,  but  from  1 602  the  collection  was  open  to 
readers  in  a  provisional  locality.  David  Loggan,  the 
engraver,  has  preserved  for  us  interior  views  of  the 
Bodleian  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  rooms  are 
disposed  in  the  form  of  the  letter  H,  with  pavilions  to 
east  and  west,  united  by  a  gallery.  The  books  were 
and  are  still  in  the  body  of  the  library,  placed  against 
the  walls,  with  tables  and  immovable  seats.  The 
volumes  were  not  displaced  ;  they  were  consulted  in 
their  own  place.  Each  room  had  two  floors,  with 
access  to  the  second  by  stairs. 

In  London  it  was  Hans  Sloane  who  had  the  idea  of 
founding  a  great  collection  by  offering  to  the  State  for 


THE   BRITISH    MUSEUM.  3OI 

iJ^20,ooo  his  collection  of  books,  which  was  valued  at 
^50,000.  Created  in  1753  by  an  Act  of  Parliament, 
the  British  Museum,  as  it  was  named,  was  quickly 
augmented  by  many  private  libraries,  among  which 
was  the  library  of  printed  books  and  manuscripts  col- 
lected by  the  kings  of  England  from  Henry  VII.  to 
William  III.,  which  was  added  in  the  reign  of  George  II. 
The  very  extensive  and  valuable  library  of  George  III., 
250,000  volumes,  was  added  by  George  IV.  The 
Harleian  collection  added  7,500  volumes,  and  Robert 
Cotton  his  manuscripts.  To-day  the  printed  books 
amount  to  1,300,000,  and  are  only  surpassed  by  the 
National  Library  of  France  as  well  in  number  of 
books  as  in  number  of  readers.  This  immense  collec- 
tion increases  at  a  great  rate,  one  source  being  the 
compulsory  deposit  of  a  copy  of  every  new  book  in 
order  to  secure  copyright.  Donations  and  legacies 
are  constantly  being  made,  and  an  annual  sum  for 
purchases  is  voted  by  Parliament.  Besides  the  copy 
deposited  by  publishers  in  the  British  Museum,  the 
law  of  copyright  compels  the  deposit  of  four  other 
copies,  which  go  to  augment  the  collections  of  the 
Bodleian  Library  of  Oxford,  the  University  Library 
of  Cambridge,  and  the  libraries  of  Edinburgh  and 
Dublin. 

If  we  search  among  the  cities  of  Europe  where  estab- 
lishments of  this  kind  are  most  honoured,  Berlin  will 
take  the  third  place  with  900,000  printed  books  and 
20,000  manuscripts,  preserved  in  the  Imperial  Library. 
The  building,  constructed  between  1775  and  1780,  owes 
its  special  form  to  Frederick  II.,  who  desired  that  it 
should   take   the    form   of   a    chest    of   drawers.       On 


302  THE   PRINTED    BOOK. 

the  facade  an  inscription  in  the  Latin  tongue,  but  con- 
ceived in  German  spirit,  indicates  that  here  is  a  spiri- 
tual refectory — nutrimentum  spiritus.  Following  come 
Munich,  with  8oo,ooo  printed  books  ;  Vienna  400,000  ; 
Dresden,  300,000  ;  then  the  universities :  Leipzig* 
whose  library,  founded  in  L409  and  reorganised  in 
1830,  contains  150,000  books  and  2,000  manuscripts; 
Heidelberg  ;  Gottingen,  etc. 

In  Italy,  Florence  keeps,  in  the  National  Library, 
300,000  volumes,  proceeding  from  various  amateurs,  and 
formed  since  i860.  The  collection  of  the  goldsmith 
Magliabecchi,  that  was  open  to  readers  since  1747,  has 
been  transported  there.  Besides  this  library,  Florence 
possesses  the  celebrated  Laurentian,  created  by  Cosmo 
de  Medicis  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  where 
are  united  more  than  8,000  manuscripts  of  an  incal- 
culable value.  Milan  has  at  the  Brera  a  collection  of 
200,000  printed  books  and  50,000  medals,  and  at  the 
Ambrosian,  due  to  Cardinal  Frederick  Borromeo, 
160,000  printed   books  and  8,000  manuscripts. 

Rome  possesses  a  dozen  collections  and  celebrated 
deposits.  The  Vatican,  not  numerous,  is  most  choice  ; 
the  importance  of  its  manuscripts  is  known  to  the  entire 
world,  but  only  a  part  of  the  50,000  printed  books  are 
catalogued.  The  Library  of  Victor  Emmanuel,  formerly 
of  the  Jesuits,  amounts  to  about  66,000  volumes.  At 
Venice  the  splendid  monument  called  the  Antiqua 
Libraria  di  St.  Marco  has  changed  its  destination  ; 
constructed  in  the  sixteenth  century  and  commenced 
by  Sansovino  for  a  library,  it  is  now  a  royal  palace. 
This  city  has  lost  that  which  had  made  its  glory,  and 
its  collections  are  very  modest  in  our  days. 


rUBLIC   LIBRARIKS   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES.     303 

The  magnificent  educational  establishments  in  the 
form  of  public  libraries  provided  in  the  United  States 
deserve  special  mention.  Nearly  every  city  has  its 
public  library,  supported  by  a  small  tax ;  and  many 
large  libraries  are  wholly  supported  by  private  munifi- 
cence. The  first  to  be  established  was  founded  in  1732 
by  Benjamin  Franklin  in  Philadelphia,  and  still  exists 
as  the  Library  Company ;  many  important  bequests 
have  been  made  to  it,  the  latest  being  ;!f200,ooo  by 
Dr.  Richard  Rush.  The  library  now  numbers  150,000 
volumes.  The  Congressional  Library  of  Washington, 
besides  its  annual  income  from  Government,  receives 
by  deposit  for  copyright  a  copy  of  every  work  pub- 
lished in  the  United  States;  it  now  has  565,000 
volumes. 

The  Astor  Library  and  the  Lenox  Library  of  New 
York  were  both  founded  and  endowed  by  the  families 
whose  name  they  bear ;  the  former  has  223,284 
volumes,  the  latter  25,000.  The  city  of  Chicago  re- 
cently fell  heir  to  the  magnificent  sum  of  over  one 
million  sterling  for  the  establishment  of  a  library  of 
reference,  and  New  York  was  benefited  by  the  late 
Mr.  Tilden  to  the  extent  of  iJ"8oo,000  for  a  public 
library. 

When  we  have  named  the  libraries  of  St.  Petersburg 
and  Moscow  for  Russia,  Stockholm  for  Sweden,  and 
the  Escurial  for  Spain,  we  shall  have  mentioned  very 
hastily  the  most  important  establishments  in  the  world. 
For  more  than  four  centuries  the  love  of  books  has 
preserved  and  fortified  itself,  and  increases  each  day. 
If  we  were  to  endeavour  to  approximately  imagine 
the  number  of  printed  books    diffused,    we  should  be 


,i^' 


304  THE    PRINTED   BOOK. 

frightened  at  it.  It  is  by  miles  that  to-da}'  are 
counted  the  shelves  of  the  National  Library  or  of  the 
British  Museum  ;  and  each  year  the  production  is 
accelerated,  as  is  also  the  number  of  readers. 


THE    END. 


INDEX 


Albi,  first  printer  at,  47. 
Alciati,  books  of  emblems,  126. 
Aiding,  Henry,  printer  in  Sicily, 

35- 
Aldns    Manutins,    son-in-law    of 

Torresani,      51   ;     printer     in 

Venice,   99,    103,    128;    books 

for  Grolier,  260. 
America,  North,  printing  in,  216. 
Antwerp,  early  printing  at,  67  ; 

Plantin,  140. 
Ars  McDiorandi,  block  book,  10. 
A7-S  Moriendiy  block  book,  8. 
Asola,   Andrew  d',   successor  of 

Jenson,  50. 
Audran,  C,  engraver,  158. 
Augsburg,  Formschncidcrs  at,  158. 

Badier,  Florimoxd,  bookbinder, 

280. 
Badius,  Jodocus,  printer  in  Paris, 

122,  246. 
Baldini,  designs  for  early  Italian 

books,  54. 
Ballard,  printer  for  music,  186. 
Bamberg,  early  printing  at,  25,  29. 
Barcelona,  first  printer,  36. 
Bartolozzi,  engraver,  209. 
Baskerville,  printer  of  Birming- 
ham, 208. 
Basle,  first  printer,  36  ;  school  of 

engraving,  125. 
Beaujoyeux,  Balthasar  de.  Ballet 

Co7niqne,  136. 
Bechtermuncze,  Henry,  pupil  of 

Gutenberg,  25,  36. 
Bedford,     Francis,     bookbinder, 

288. 
Belfort,  Andrew,  printer  at  Fer- 

rara,  35.  j 

Berlin,  Imperial  Library  of,  301. 
Bernard,  le  petit,  designer,  128. 


Bewick,  Thomas,  engraver,  209, 
213,  225,  234. 

Bible,  Gutenberg's,  15,  20;  of 
1462,  the  Mayence,  27  ;  first 
English,  146  ;  Authorised  Ver- 
sion, 182  ;  the  Polyglot,  Plan- 
tin's,  141  ;  Richelieu's,  173. 

Biblia  Paiipcinim,  block  book,  8. 

Bignon,  Jerome,  royal  librarian, 

293- 
Binding,  earl}',  253. 
Biziaux,  bookbinder,  287. 
Blind  Asylum,  printers  in   1786, 

216. 
Bocard,      Andrew,      printer      in 

Paris,  88. 
Bodleian  Librarj',  300. 
Bohn,  H.  G.,  publisher,  223. 
Bologna,  Francisco  da,  engraver 

of  type,  100. 
Bonhomme,    printer    in    Lyons, 

128. 
Book,  the,  earliest  forms  of,  i,  6. 
Books   of    Hours,    ^o,    112;    for 

English  use,  147. 
Booksellers  of  Paris,    170,    186, 

190,  196. 
Bosse,  Abraham,  engraver,  170. 
Botticelli,  plates  to  Dante,  55. 
Boucher,  designer,  188. 
Bourdichon,  John,  artist,  69. 
Boydell,    Alderman,     publisher, 

210. 
Boyet,  bookbinder,  287. 
Brandt's  "  Ship  of  Fools,'  65. 
British  Museum,  library,  301. 
Brothers  of  Common  Life,  prin- 
ters, 1468,  36. 
Browne,  H.  K.,  book  illustrator, 

^35- 
Bruges,  early  printing  at,  37,  67. 
Buckinck,     Arnold,     printer    at 


20 


--=5>_/ 


3o6 


INDEX. 


Rome,  printed  the  first  atks, 

55- 
Bude,  Guillaume,  royal  librarian, 
291. 

C^SARis,  Peter,  and  John  Stol, 
second  Paris  printers,  68. 

Callot,  engraver,  167. 

Cambridge,  first  printing  at,  149. 

Cars,  Laurent,  engraver,  189. 

Cases  for  type,  243. 

Caslon,  William,  type-founder, 
208. 

Catherine  de  Medicis,  bindings 
for,  270. 

"  Catholicon,"  the,  of  1460, 
printed  by  Gutenberg,  23. 

Caxton,  William,  first  English 
printer,  37,  92,  240. 

Cazin,  publisher,  200. 

Cerceau,  Basthncnts  dc  France, 
1576,  135- 

Chaillot,  Robin,  publisher  in 
Paris,  82. 

Challeux,  James  le,  wood  en- 
graver, 137. 

Chamot,  bookbinder,  287. 

Cliampflciiry,  Geoftroy  Tory's, 
116,  261. 

Characters,  variety  of,  243. 

Charles  VII.  sends  Jenson  to 
Mayence,  38. 

Charles  VIII.,  royal  library,  291. 

Charles  IX.,  bindings  for,  274. 

Charles  of  Angouleme,  books 
specially  printed  for  him,  78. 

Chauveau,  Francis,  engraver,  179. 

Chess,  Caxton's  book  on,  92. 

Chodowiecki,  engraver,  208. 

Choffard,  engraver,  198,  211. 

Clement  V.,  Constitittioncs,  1460, 
printed  by  Schoeffer,  26. 

Clement,  Nicholas,  royal  libra- 
rian, 294. 

Clennell,  Luke,  wood  engraver, 
215,  225,  234, 

Cochin  the  younger,  engraver, 
191. 


Colbert,  bindings  for,  272,  282. 
Collines,  Simon  de,  type-founder, 

241. 
Cologne,  first  printer,  36. 
"  Cologne  Chronicle,  "  58. 
Colonna,  Francis,  Poliphilus  of, 

1499,  56  ;  in  French,  1545,  123. 
Colophons,     use    of,     by    early 

printers,  88. 
Commin,  Vincent,  bookseller  in 

Paris,  82. 
Companies  of  printers  in  France, 

165. 
Copper  plate  engraving,  135  ;  in 

England,  149. 
Coster,  Laurent,  alleged  inventor 

of  printing,  6,  30. 
Cousin,  John,  designs  for  books, 

132. 
Cramoisy,   Sebastian,  printer  of 

Paris,    155,    165;    director    of 

bindings  for  Louis  XIV.   281. 
Cranach,    Lucas,    his   Passional 

Christ/',  106. 
Cranmer's  Catechism,  1548,  148. 
Cruikshank,  George,  book  illus- 
trator, 235. 
Curmer,  publisher  of  Paris,  230. 

Dances  of  Death,   58,  72,  85, 

124. 
Dante,      1481,      with     engraved 

plates,  54;  149 1,  with  Botticelli 

plates,    55  ;    1487,    printed  by 

Bonnini,  58. 
Day,  John,  printer,  146. 
Delia  Bella,  engraver,  168. 
Deromes,  bookbinders,  286. 
Desportes,   Philip,   bindings  for, 

272. 
Deveria,  engraver,  227. 
Dibdin,    T.    F.,    bibliographical 

works,  223. 
Didot,  Francois,  printer  of  Paris, 

194. 
Didot,  Pierre  F.,  printer  of  Paris, 

216,  219. 
Didot  family,  218,  242, 


INDEX, 


307 


Dijon,  first  printer  at,  47. 

DiodorusSiculus,  Geoffroy  Tory's 
edition,  118. 

Donatus,  the  Latin  syntax  of,  4, 30. 

Dore,  Gustave,  influence  on  illus- 
tration, 234. 

Doyle,  Richard,  book  illustrator, 

235- 

Dritzehen,  Andrew,  associate  of 
Gutenberg,  13. 

Dubois,  Gilles,  bookbinder,  281. 

Dubuisson,  Peter  Paul,  book- 
binder, 286. 

Duchesne  on  wood  engraving, 
22^. 

Duplat,  relief  engraving  on  stone, 

213- 

Duplessis-Bertau.Y,  engraver,  206. 

Du  Pre,  John,  printer  of  Books 
of  Hours,  80. 

Dupuy  brothers,  bindings  for, 
272,  282  ;  ro3'al  librarians,  293. 

Durand's  Rationale,  1459,  printed 
by  Schoeffer,  26. 

Diirer,  Albert,  pupil  of  Wohlge- 
muth, 60;  "Apocalypse,''  62, 
104 ;  influence  on  Geoffroy 
Tory,  1 16. 

Duseuil,  bookbinder,  287. 

EiSEN,  engraver,  196. 

Eltvil,  first  printer,  36. 

Elzevirs,  printers  at  Leyden,  162. 

Emblems,  books  of,  126,  135. 

England,  bookbinding  in,  288  ; 
public  libraries,  300. 

English  books,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  92  ;  in  the  sixteenth 
centur}-,  144  ;  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, 181  ;  eighteenth  century, 
208  ;  nineteenth  century,  222, 
234;  school  of  engraving  eigh- 
teenth centurj^  209. 

Engraved  plates,  first  book  with, 
52;  in  France,  134,  igo. 

Engravers,  employed  by  Plantin, 
142  ;  in  relief,  the  first,  3. 

Engraving,  introduction  of  metal 


plates  for,  32  ;  the  process,  52  ; 

in  the  Books  of  Hours,  71. 
Erasmus,  visit  to  Aldus,  loi. 
Estienne,  Robert,  printer  in  Paris, 

121,  242. 
Etching,  process  of,  189. 
Eustache,     'William,    printer    of 

Books  of  Hours,  82. 
Eve,  Nicholas,  bookbinder,  274. 

Ferrara,  first  printer,  35. 
Fichet,  William,  ascribes  inven- 
tion of  printing  to  Gutenberg, 

31- 

Flemish,  illustration,  66;  printers, 
early,  36,  106. 

Florence,  National  Library  of,  302. 

Foligno,  first  printer,  35. 

Fontainebleau  school  of  engrav- 
ing, 128. 

Fornazeris,  J.  de,  engraver,  158. 

Foucquet,  John,  artist,  6g. 

Fount  of  type,  243. 

Fonquet,  Superintendent,  bind- 
ings for,  272,  282. 

Fournier,  type-engraver,  242. 

France,  early  printing  in,  47. 

Francis  L,  father  of  letters,  120; 
bindings  for,  266 ;  roj-al  li- 
brary, 291. 

Frankfort,  books  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  159. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  printer  at 
Philadelphia,  217;  founded  first 
American  public  library,  303. 

French  book  illustration,  68,  76, 
106,  166,  203;  provinces,  public 
libraries  of,  298. 

Fresne,  Trichet  du,  corrector  of 
Royal  Printing  House,  166. 

Furne,  publisher  of  Paris,  232. 

Fust,  John,  12  et  seq.\  in  part- 
nership with  Gutenberg,  15. 

Garamond,  Claude,  type-foun- 
der, 121,  166,  241; 

Gaultier,  Leonard,  engraver,  142, 
154- 


3o8 


INDEX. 


Gavarni,  designer,  233. 

Gad,  William,  inventor  of  stereo- 
type, 220. 

Gering,  Freybiirger,  and  Crantz, 
first  printers  in  Paris,  41. 

German  books,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  158;  eighteenth 
century,  208 ;  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, 224. 

German  public  libraries,  299. 

Gigoux,  John,  vignettist,  228. 

Gillot,  Claude,  engraver,  180, 1S6. 

Giunta,  Lucantonio,  printer  at 
Venice,  102. 

Gondi,  bindings  for,  272. 

Gourmont,  John  de,  wood  en- 
graver, 137. 

Grandjean,  Philip,  royal  printer, 
242. 

Grandville,  designer,  233. 

Gravelot,  Hubert  Francis,  engra- 
ver, 196,  213. 

Grolier,  John,  bindings  for,  256. 

Guadagnino,  artist  of  Venice,  102. 

Guise,  Henri  de,  "  Le  Balafre," 
bindings  for,  274. 

Gutenberg,  John,  12  ct  scq.  ;  at 
Mayence,  15  ;  death  of,  29. 

Haarlem,  book   illustration  at, 

67. 
Hachette,  publisher  of  Paris,  234. 
Hagenbach,  Peter,  printer  at  To- 
ledo, 36. 
Hahn,  Ulrich,  printer  at  Rome, 

35  ;    printed    first    illustrated 

book  in  Italy,  48. 
Hardouins,  printers  of  Books  of 

Hours,  82. 
Haye,  Cornells  de  la,  painter,  130. 
Heilmann,  Andrew,  associate  of 

Gutenberg,  13. 
Heinlein    and   Fichet    introduce 

printing  into  Paris,  40. 
Henri  II.,     Entree  a  Lyo7i,  1549, 

130;  bindings  for,  270;  royal 

library,  292. 
Henri  III.,  bindings  for,  274. 


Henri  IV.,  royal  library,  292. 

Hoe  printing  machines,  249. 

Holbein,  "  Dance  of  Death,"  86, 
124  ;  Cranmers  Catechism, 
148. 

Holland,  artists  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  160. 

Illustrations,  first,  in  books, 
47  ;  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
123. 

Imposition,  process  ol,  245. 

Ink,  composition  of,  252. 

Ipswich,  first  printer,  149. 

Isaac,  Jasper,  engraver,  156. 

Italian,  books  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  159;  influence  on 
French  illustration,  125  ;  on 
bindings,  256. 

Italic  type  introduced,  100. 

Italy,  public  libraries  of,  302. 

Jenson,  Nicholas,  sent  to  May- 
ence to  learn  type-founding, 
38  ;  printer  at  Venice,  38,  103. 

Johannot  brothers,  engravers, 
227. 

John  of  Cologne,  master  a  la 
navette,  67. 

Jombert,  printer  of  Paris,  192. 

Junius,  Hadrian,  narrator  of  the 
Coster  legend,  6,  12. 

Kerver,  Thielmax,  printer  of 
Books  of  Hours,  80,  88. 

Knight,  Charles,  publisher,  223. 

Koburger,  first  printer  at  Nurem- 
berg, 36,  60. 

Koelhof,  first  printer  to  use  sig- 
natures, 36. 

Labarre,  John  de,  royal  libra- 
rian, 291. 

Laborde,  CJiansons,  202. 

Laferte,  bookbinder,  287. 

La  Fontaine,  the  Contcs,  198. 

La  Marche,  Oliver  de,  his  Cheva- 
lier Delibcre,  67. 


INDEX. 


309 


Lascirc,  hixury  in  Ijindings  for, 
278. 

La  Tour,  bookbinder,  281. 

Lavoignat,  wood  engraver,  230. 

Lebe,  William,  tj'pe-l'ounder,  140, 
242. 

Le  Brun,  painter,  175. 

Leclerc,  Sebastien,  engraver,  176. 

Leech,  John, book  illustrator,  235. 

Leeu,  Gerard  de,  printer  at  Ant- 
werp, 67. 

Le  Gascon  bindings,  276. 

Le  Jay  and  the  Polyglot  Bible, 

173- 

Le  Maire,  John,  Illustrations  dc 
la  Gallic,  107. 

Le  ]\Ionnier,  bookbinder,  287. 

Lenoir,  Philip,  bindings  for  Fran- 
cis L,  268. 

Lepautre,  engraver,   179. 

Lesne,  poet  of  bookbinding,  287. 

Letters  of  Indulgence,  the  first 
printed,  17. 

Lettou,  John,  earty  English  prin- 
ter, 95. 

Leu,  Thomas  de,  engraver,  142, 
154. 

Levasseur,  bookbinder,  281. 

Lewis,  Charles,  bookbinder,  288. 

Leyden,  the  Elzevirs  at,  162 ; 
public  librar}'  of,  299. 

Libraries,  290. 

Library,  National,  of  Paris,  291. 

Lipsius,  Justus,  employed  by 
Plantin,  140. 

Logography,  invention  of,  216. 

Lorenzo,  Nicholas  di,  printer  of 
El  Monte  Santo  di  Dio,  first 
book  with  engraved  plates,  52. 

Loslein,  Peter,  printer  at  Venice, 

35- 
Louis  XIL,  ordinanceon  printing, 

108;   bindings    for,   256,    264; 

royal  Hbrary,  291. 
Louis    XIV.,  bindings   for,  281  ; 

regulations     for    bookbinders, 

282. 
Louvain,  printer  in  1474,  37. 


Lutzelburger,  Hans,  engraver  of 
"  Dance  of  Death,"  125. 

Lyons,  first  printing  at,  47  ;  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  124; 
seventeenth  century,  158. 

Machlima,  Willia:\i,  early  Eng- 
lish printer,  37,  95. 

Macon,  first  printer  at,  47. 

Magasin  Pittorcsqiic,  11b. 

IMainj'al,  George,  associate  of 
Gering,  47. 

Maioli,  Thomas,  bindings  for, 
259. 

Mansteldt,  Count,  bindings  lor, 
272 

Mansion,  Colard,  printer  at 
Bruges,  1473,  37. 

Manuscripts,  influence  of  print- 
ing upon,  34. 

Manutius.     See  Aldus. 

Marchant,  Guyot,  his  "  Dance  of 
Death,"  86 ;  bindings  for 
Francis  I.,  268. 

Marinoni  printing  press,  249. 

Marnef,  Geoffroy  and  Gilbert, 
French  printers,  107. 

Mayence,  revolution  at,  in  1462, 
27  ;  printing  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  158. 

Mayer,  Henry,  printer  at  Tou- 
louse, 47. 

Mazarin,  Cardinal,  bindings  for, 
280;  his  library,  293. 

Meissonier,  designer  on  wood, 
230. 

Mellan,  Claude,  engraver,  156. 

Menzel,  Adolph,  book  illustrator, 
224. 

Mcr  des  Histoircs,  1488,  70, 
107. 

Merius,  bookbinder,  281. 

Meslier,  Denis,  publisher  in 
Paris,  82. 

Metal  plates  used  for  illustration, 

134- 
Metlinger,  printer  at  Dijon,  47. 
Milan,  printing  in  the  sixteenth 


,IO 


INDEX. 


century,    103  ;  public  libraries 

of,  302. 
Montenay,  Georgette  de,  his  em- 
blems, 135. 
Monteregio,      Calcndario,      first 

book  with  title-page,  50. 
Montmorency,  Anne  de,  bindings 

for,  272. 
Moreau   the   younger,   engraver, 

200. 
Moretus,  printer  of  Antwerp,  141. 
Mosaic  bindings,  284. 
Motte,     Houdart      de     la,      his 

"  Fables,"  186. 

Necker,    Jost,   engraver  of  the 

TJieuerdanck,  105. 
Neumeister,  John,  printer  at  Albi, 

47- 

Neumeister,  John,  printer  at 
Foligno,  35. 

Nevers,  Due  de,  book  published 
in  1577,  138. 

Notary,  Julian,  early  English 
printer,  96. 

Noyers,  Sublet  de,  superinten- 
dent of  Royal  Printing  House, 
166. 

Nuremberg,  first  printer,  36 ; 
books  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
104 ;  Chronicle,  1493,  62 ; 
books  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, 159. 

Orleans,  public  librarj^  at,  298. 
Os,   Peter  van,  his  Biblia  Pau- 

perinn,  67. 
Osvven,    John,    first     printer    at 

Ipswich,  149. 
Oxford,  first  printer,  37;  Bodleian 

Library,  300. 

Palermo,  first  printer,  35. 
Palmart,     Lambert,     printer    at 

Valencia,  1477,  36. 
Pannartz,     Arnold,     printer     at 

Rome,  35. 
Paper,  manufacture  of,  249. 
Papillons,  wood  engravers,  212. 


Paris,  Fust's  visit  to,  27  ;  first 
book  printed  at,  42  ;  public 
libraries  of,  298. 

Pasdeloup,  bookbinder,  284. 

Pasquier-Bonhomme,  printer  in 
Paris,  68. 

Pass  family,  engravers,  160. 

Pasti,  Matteo,  designs  for  Valtu- 
rius,  49. 

Paulin,  publisher  of  Paris,  228. 

Payne,  Roger,  bookbinder,  288. 

Perreal,  John,  artist,  69. 

Pfinzfing,  TlicHcrdaiick,  104. 

Pfister,  Albert,  printer  of  Bam- 
berg, 25. 

Philippe,  Laurent,  publisher  in 
Paris,  82. 

Photograph}',  use  in  illustration, 

233- 
Picart,  Bernard,  engraver,  180. 
Picart,  John,  engraver,  156. 
Piccini,  engraver,  1 59. 
Pickering,    William,     publisher, 

223. 
Pictor,      Bernard,       printer      of 

Venice,  35. 
Pigouchet,      Philip,     printer     of 

Paris,  68,  70. 
Plantin,  Christopher,   printer   of 

Antwerp,  140. 
Pluvinel,  Manege  Royal,  160. 
Poitiers,  Diane  de,  bindings  for, 

270. 
Poliphilus,    printed    by    Aldus, 

1499,     56;    by    Kerver,    1545, 

123. 
Poly  types,  invention  ot,  216. 
Pompadour,  Madame   de,  bind- 
ings for,  272. 
Portraits    as     illustrations,     89, 

123,  137. 
Prault,  publisher  of  Paris,  192. 
Prayer-book,  Queen  Elizabeth's, 

146;  Edward  Vis.,  148. 
Presses,  printing,  248. 
Press  work,  process  of,  246. 
Printers'  marks,  87. 
Prohibitions  on  printers,  152, 185. 


INDEX. 


311 


Proinptuairc       dcs      Mcdaillcs, 

printed  by  Roville,  130. 
Psalter  of  1457,  the   first  dated 

book,  23. 
Ptolem}-,     147S,      first      printed 

atlas,  55. 
Pj-nson,  Richard,    earlj-  English 

printer,  37,  95,  146. 

Racine,  works,  the  Louvre 
edition,  219. 

Raffet,  wood  engraver,  232. 

Ratdolt,  Erhardt,  printer  at 
Venice,  35  ;  printed  first  title- 
page,  50,  103. 

Rembold,  Berthold,  associate  of 
Gering,  47. 

Richelieu,  Cardinal,  his  library, 
297. 

Roftet,  Peter,  bindings  for  Francis 
I.,  267. 

Rogers,  Samuel,  his  poetical 
works,  222. 

Roman  character,  38,  240. 

Rome,  first  printers,  35  ;  public 
libraries  of,  302. 

Rood,  Theod.,  first  printer  at 
Oxford,  37. 

Roville,  printer  of  Lyons,  128, 130. 

Royal  Printing  House  in  Paris, 
166,  215. 

Royer,  John  le,  printer  for  mathe- 
matics, 1560,  132. 

Ruette,  bookbinder,  282. 

Riippel,  Berthold,  first  printer 
at  Basle,  36. 

St.  Albans,  first  printer,  37. 

St.  Aubin,  designer  and  en- 
graver, 192,  200. 

St  Pierre,  Bernardin  de,  and 
the  Didots,  221. 

Salomon,  Bernard,  designer,  128. 

Sanlecque,  James,  type-founder, 
242. 

Schaufelein,  designs  for  the 
Thcucrdanck,  105. 

Schiedam,  early  printing  at,  67. 


Schoeffer,  Peter,  associate  of 
Gutenberg  and  Fust,  16. 

Schongauer,  Martin,  influence  on 
French  art,  72. 

Schonsperger,  printer  of  Augs- 
burg,  105. 

Seguier,  bindings  for,  282. 

Siberch,  John,  first  printer  at 
Cambridge,  149. 

Sicily,  first  printer,  35. 

Sizes  of  books,  147,  189. 

Sloane,  Sir  Hans,  founder  of  the 
British  Museum,  300. 

Smirke,  Robert,  book  illustrator, 
210. 

Southwark,  first  printer  at,  149. 

Spain,  book  illustration  in,  106. 

Spfculuvi  Hiniiaiia  Salvationist 

7- 

Spindeler,  Nicholas,  printer  at 
Barcelona,  36. 

Spire,  John  and  Vendelin  of,  prin- 
ters at  Venice,  35. 

Spyes,  Weigand,  pupil  of  Guten- 
berg, 25. 

Stanhope  press,  248. 

Steel  plates  for  illustrations,  232. 

Stereotj-pe,  invention  of,  220. 

Stothard,  Thomas,  book  illustra- 
tor, 210,  222,  234. 

Strasbourg,  Gutenberg's  retreat 
to,  13. 

Sweynheim,  Conrad,  printer  at 
Rome,  35. 

Tailleurs  d'imagcs  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  3. 

Tauchnitz,  Baron,  publisher  of 
Leipzig,  224. 

Tessier,  bookbinder,  287. 

Ther-Hoenen,  Arnold,  first  prin- 
ter using  Arabic  numerals  for 
pages,  36,  58,  88. 

Thciicrdanck,  printed  at  Nurem- 
berg, 104. 

Thevet,  books  with  plates,  135. 

Thompson  brothers,  wood  en- 
gravers, 225. 


312 


INDEX. 


Thou,  James  Augustus  de,  royal 
librarian,  293. 

Titian,  influence  on  book  illustra- 
tion, 103. 

Title-page,  the  first,  50,  86  ;  illus- 
trated, 133,  142. 

Toledo,  first  printer,  36. 

Tornes,  Hans  de,  printer  in 
Lyons,  128. 

Torresani,  Andrea,  succeeded 
Jenson,  50. 

Tortorel  and  Perrissin,  plates  on 
the  religious  wars,  137. 

Tory,  Geotfroy,  printer  and  en- 
graver, no,  241,  261. 

Toulouse,  first  printer,  47. 

Travel,  books  of,  148,  182. 

Treschel,  John,print:r  at  Lyons, 
88,   124. 

Treves,  Peter  of,  first  printer  at 
Southwark,  149. 

Trithemius,  account  of  Peter 
Schoeffer,  16. 

Turner,  J.  M.  W.,  designs  for 
Rogers'  works,  222. 

Type-founding,  239,  243. 

United  States,  printing  in,  216  ; 

public  libraries  in,  302. 
Utrecht,  early  printers  at,  36,  67. 

Valdarfer,  Christopher,  prin- 
ter at  Venice,  35. 
Valencia,  first  printer,  36. 
Valladier,  Andrew,  Mctancologic, 

155- 

M2M\\T\w:i,DcRcMilitari,  1472, 49. 

Veldener,  John,  printer  at  Lou- 
vain,  67. 

Venice,  first  printers,  35 ;  first 
title-page  printed  at,  50  ;  six- 
teenth century  work,  102 ; 
seventeenth  century,  159;  li- 
braries of,  302. 

Verard,  Antony,  printer  in  Paris, 
68,  76  ;  his  Books  of  Hours,  78. 

Versailles,  printing  office  of  the 
Minister  for  War,  215. 


Vinri,  Leonardo  da,  influence  on 
book  illustration,  103. 

Vitre,  Antoine,  publisher  of  Paris, 
172. 

Voragine,  "Golden  Legend,"  Ve- 
nice, 1518,  103. 

Vostre,  Simon,  printer  in  Paris, 
68  ;  his  Books  of  Hours,  70. 

Vyel,  Andrew,  printer  at  Palermo, 
35- 

Walchius,  story  of  Fust's  visit 
to  Paris,  28. 

Walter,  John,  printer  of  the 
Times,  216,  249. 

Water  marks  in  paper,  251. 

Watervliet,  Marc  Laurin  de,  bind- 
ings for,  272. 

Watteau,  engraver,  187. 

Wechel,  printer  in  Paris,  128. 

Wensler,  Michael,  printer  at  Ma- 
con, 47. 

Westminster,  Caxton  first  printer 
at,  37. 

Westphalia,  John  ot,  printer  at 
Louvain,  1474,  37,  67. 

Whittingham,  Charles,  printer, 
223. 

Woeriot,  Peter,  engraver  ot  em- 
blems, 135. 

Wohlgemuth,  Michael,  designs 
for  the  Schatzbchaltcr,  60. 

Wolfenbiittel,  public  library  of, 
299. 

Woodcuts,  first  book  prmted 
with,  48. 

Wood  engraving,  revival  of,  209, 
213,  230. 

Wynken  de  Worde,  early  Eng- 
lish printer,  37,  95. 

Xylographs  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, 8. 

Zainer,    Gunther,    printer    at 

Augsburg,  58. 
Zell,  Ulrich,  pupil  of  Gutenberg, 

-5-  30.  36- 
Zwoll,  book  illustration  at,  67. 


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